It gives me great pleasure to stand here alongside my colleagues today and to speak on the Worker Screening Bill 2020. I have to say before I begin that it is wonderful to follow the member for Mordialloc and the member for Oakleigh, because I have sat here and listened to those incredible contributions that really go to the heart of what it is to be Labor and why Labor governments make a difference. It has actually taken me right back to being a very young girl living at home and sitting at the dinner table with my father and having instilled in me, over many, many years in kitchen table discussions, why it is important to look after those in our society and in our community who are the most vulnerable. That really goes to the heart of Labor values, who we are and why Labor governments truly make a difference in this country, in this state, to the most vulnerable people in our community, and yes, that is people with disabilities.

This bill is an incredibly important step forward in continuing Labor’s ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities, for some of the most vulnerable people here in our state. Because Labor, after all, was and is the party that created the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS), one of the greatest reforms to our social safety net in the last decade and one that has enjoyed bipartisan support mostly, despite those in Canberra having raided and pillaged it to fabricate a surplus last year, not that that has done them much good this year.

During my time as the member for Tarneit I have had the privilege to meet so many wonderful families living right across Wyndham. We talk about all kinds of things, quite often including someone that they love—a friend or a family member—who has a disability and their ongoing experience and frustration with the NDIS service. I will never forget sitting down at one of my favourite cafes in Tarneit, the Little Growling Cafe, and sitting across from a wonderful couple. Their names all these years later escape me, but I can still see their faces and their smiles. What struck me most and why I remember this couple so well is that they were not only elderly but still very much in love. We caught up over coffee, quite ironically, as part of Carers Week some years ago. The husband had suffered a brain injury as part of a very tragic workplace accident and his wife was now not only his wife but his primary carer. Despite all the smiles and the inside jokes the two of them would share across the table over cake and coffee, I could not help but wonder about the hardship that both of them faced in these later years of their lives. But it was pretty obvious to me at that time that their love for each other was probably likely to sustain them through the many, many challenges and hardships that they undoubtedly faced on a daily basis.

This bill is the result of an agreement between commonwealth and state governments to implement a national screening standard for workers involved in the NDIS. I have to say this could not come soon enough. A nationally consistent screening system for NDIS workers means that Australians living with disabilities can get the same access to the same standard of care regardless of which state they live in. Now, people living with disabilities and their carers know that our government has their back. We are in their corner when it comes to quality care and improving opportunities. But we know, like anyone here in this house knows, that the system is not perfect. And we hear it all too often from our constituents—families who reach out to our electorate offices for help. I know my office has sat down with so many constituents who have struggled with the NDIS and have complained about their providers. I have had many that have told me they have not been happy with the support worker that has been assigned to them and they have struggled to navigate the nightmare that they felt was the NDIS system. In a lot of cases these were parents, mums and dads, who were looking after children and who really relied on the NDIS not only to provide things like respite care but also to provide just the basic opportunities that they wanted to see their kids have, that they knew that their kids needed in order to be able to thrive in this world.

Now, all these people wanted was for the system to work for them, for those who work under the NDIS to be qualified, to be equipped with the appropriate skills needed to work with disabilities. And that is exactly what this bill is all about. At the core of this bill is a new framework for regulating disability care workers. There is no doubt that workers under the NDIS do an amazing job, but it is not always easy. They make an absolutely rewarding difference to the lives of others, and it is so important then that those working in this industry perform their job to the highest of standards. That is why this bill introduces worker screening checks for NDIS workers. Now, these checks are no different to the working with children checks for teachers and childcare workers which the Bracks government introduced in 2005. Labor did this basically because it is a no-brainer that our kids need to be safe—in the safe care of adults, qualified adults, who know how to look after them.

Now, with both my children returning back to school this week, my mind, as I come to work and I sit up here at Parliament, is at rest. It is at rest knowing that they are in the safe and qualified hands of their teachers. Just like teachers, we want to make sure that NDIS providers are hiring only those who are best qualified for their job, and to do that this bill adapts the standards contained in the Working with Children Act 2005 and applies them to NDIS workers. As a result, the Working with Children Act will be grandfathered under this new act.

For greater flexibility and future utility the bill also allows the frameworks to be adapted for any future screening that we may need. Now, these changes allow us and will also allow future governments to recognise the number of ways that people can find themselves in vulnerable positions and the standards they can expect from people who care for them and who will provide them with assistance. While the two schemes will not be identical, the NDIS worker screening will contain many of the same requirements for a working with children check, and these include things like identity verification and criminal history, both of which are so important in assessing whether a person is qualified for this kind of job.

The bill also contains some small but still very important changes to the working with children framework in order to keep it up to date with the new worker screening system. Now, under the current arrangements PSOs are required to obtain a working with children check in order to do their jobs, even though we know police are not, and we hold them both to the same standard of character in order for them to be trained and hired in the first place. Just like police, PSOs go through background checks and tests to determine whether they are of fit and proper character. For them, having to go through a working with children check is, let us face it, another unnecessary barrier. This change reflects the increasingly important role that PSOs will continue to play in our communities today, keeping us safe at our train stations and across the CBD. If you are in the position where you need to get both checks, such as those who work with children with disabilities, you will not be burdened with extra costs; your working with children check will be free.

Now, of course these changes are not going to come into effect overnight, which is why, in addition to implementing the framework, we have implemented the disability worker exclusion scheme, which will maintain the current standards until the NDIS worker screening comes into effect. So what this will mean is that until this new screening system is fully implemented the disability worker exclusion scheme will assess those currently working under the NDIS.

This bill most certainly is the next step, a very important step, in rolling out a quality NDIS system. That is what matters here, you know. The member for Oakleigh talked about our aged-care sector. It is about quality. It is about quality in the workers and quality of the system and funding it correctly so that for the most vulnerable people—whether you are elderly, whether you are a child, whether you have a disability or anything else—however you are vulnerable, you are looked after. This is a win; it is a win for Victorians with disabilities and for those who care for them. Not only that, but in shelving this new framework with our pre-existing working with children checks our government can create screening systems in the future to address other vulnerabilities. It was a federal Labor government that created the NDIS, and I am very proud to see our own Labor government continue to support and add to this fantastic initiative, because when it comes to helping those who are vulnerable in our society, we will always stand up.