Answers to Questions on Notice reveal the shocking secret about Stuart Robert’s much-vaunted disability watchdog - it is simply not doing its job and Australians with disability are dying as a result.

It is the job of the NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission to make sure NDIS providers are doing the right thing.

This $35m a year organisation has a 300-strong workforce, spends $1.5m jetsetting around and has an executive team paid $2m.

Under the Morrison Government’s watch it has received 8,168 complaints about the abuse, neglect and even fatalities of Australians with disability.

How many fines has it issued in that time?

One.

Only one solitary fine, only one provider banned and only 22 individuals banned in two years despite thousands and thousands of tip offs.

The answers also reveal only one fine has been issued despite providers on more than 200 occasions failing to notify the watchdog of the death of a person with disability within five days of the fatality.

Mr Robert has presided over a toothless and sleepy disability watchdog that in reality is more like a very expensive purse poodle.

Australians with disability are such an afterthought to the Morrison Government the national COVID emergency response plan did not mention them once.

People with disability, NDIS participants like the late Ann Marie Smith and David Harris deserve a proper watchdog to protect them from abuse, neglect and premature mortality.

It is time for real action from Mr Robert not just more neglect.

The Morrison Government must commit to accepting and implementing the recommendations of its own Robertson Review and detail the Government’s plan to address these dangerous holes in the disability safety net.

THURSDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2020

MEDIA CONTACT: LIAM HOULIHAN 0438 366 400