Malcolm Turnbull signs NDIS agreements for Victoria and NSW

In his first major act as PM, Malcolm Turnbull has signed disability insurance rollouts for NSW and Victoria.

The NDIS agreements, signed by Malcolm Turnbull, will benefit 140,000 people in NSW and 105,000 in Victoria.

In his first major act as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has signed the first two agreements for the full rollout of the $22 billion national disability insurance scheme in Victoria and NSW.

Mr Turnbull joined NSW Premier Mike Baird and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews together with Assistant Social Services Minister Mitch Fifield to sign the agreements which will benefit 140,000 people in NSW and 105,000 in Victoria.

The scheme must increase in numbers from 30,000 participants next year to 460,000 at maturity in 2019-20.

“This marks a huge milestone towards the delivery of one of the largest social policy reforms in our nation’s history,” Mr Turnbull said.

NSW Premier Mike Baird paid tribute to prime ministers of all ilks for putting the NDIS beyond politics.

“This is an incredibly exciting day. It is great to be here with the PM, as indeed one of his first actions to bring into effect the most significant social policy this country has done in a long time,” he said.

“I am very proud to be here supporting it and I should acknowledge the role of the former PM who, in opposition, said this should be above politics, absolutely should be above politics. He committed to it, has supported it and now PM Malcolm Turnbull, one of his first acts is to bring it to life.”

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the NDIS was a beacon of policy above politics.

“There is a group of politicians sitting up here but it is not our day, this is a day for those who have campaigned for so long to deliver this sort of equity, this empowerment, this justice for those who our community who have every right to expect a fair go,” he said.

“There have been many prime ministers involved in this, many different politicians, governments of all political persuasions and today, if I can say PM, this is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we work together, when we spend less time bickering and more time focusing on the things that families and communities right across our nation need and I dare say exactly what they are fundamentally entitled to.”

Labor hailed the agreements as “great news” for people with disabilities in NSW and Victoria but declared it “absolutely critical” the rollouts in other states and territories occurred in full and on time.

“We are a step closer to Australia being able to make a promise to every person with profound and severe disability and the people who love them. This country is smart and rich and compassionate enough to give people with disability and the people who love them an equal go in Australia,” Bill Shorten said.

“Today, hopefully even the most hardened cynics who say there is no more reform that can be achieved, that all the big problems were solved a long time ago and nothing can get done in politics, today is really good news.”

Opposition disability reform spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said it was important to acknowledge people with disabilities in the two states had waited “all their lives for this moment”.

“They now know that they can look forward to a life that is full of potential, meeting peoples’ own dreams and goals which is all what the National Disability Insurance Scheme is about,” Ms Macklin said.

“Of course, it is absolutely critical that we don’t stop here today. People with disability in the rest of Australia also know that the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be rolled out in full and on time. All of us together will do everything we possibly can to make sure that that is a reality. People with disability deserve no less.”

The NDIS agreements for full rollout still need to be signed or negotiated in other jurisdictions and while some are close to being finalised Western Australia has given no indication it will ever join the full scheme and South Australia’s trial is mired in a fight about funding, because its government underestimated the numbers by half.

“I have no doubt that we will secure an arrangement that works for the Commonwealth and that works for WA,” Mr Fifield said in Canberra this morning.

NDIS rollouts

— In New South Wales, the rollout will start with the Central Coast, Hunter-New England, Nepean-Blue Mountains, Northern Sydney, South-Western Sydney, Western Sydney, and Southern New South Wales regions. The Illawarra-Shoalhaven, Mid North Coast, Murrumbidgee, Northern New South Wales, South-Eastern Sydney, Sydney, Western New South Wales, and the Far West regions will start entering the scheme from July 2017.

— In Victoria, the Northern East Melbourne, Central Highlands and Loddon regions will join the scheme from 1 July 2016. The regions of Inner Gippsland, Ovens-Murray, Western District, Inner Eastern Melbourne, Outer Eastern Melbourne, Hume-Moreland and the Bayside Peninsula will commence from July 2017, followed by Southern Melbourne, Western Melbourne, Brimbank-Melton, Goulburn, Mallee and Outer Gippsland from July 2018.

Victorian children on the Early Childhood Intervention Services waitlist will enter the scheme during the first two years of transition and ahead of the scheduled transition of each region.