When a teary Julia Gillard introduced legislation to fund the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in 2013, it was hailed as a great example of bipartisanship, warmly embraced by all sides of politics and the public. Over the past 18 months, the tone has deteriorated amid speculation about cost blowouts, inadequate care plans for trial participants and qualifications of disability carers. Freshly minted Minister for Social Services Scott Morrisons pre-Christmas announcement that welfare spending would have to be slashed to fund the insurance scheme, did nothing to assuage concerns. Labors spokeswoman on disability reform, Jenny Macklin, who oversaw the launch of the scheme in the Gillard government, was quick to dismiss the proposal as a disgusting and cynical attempt to justify a new round of savage welfare cuts. Any claim by the government that the NDIS isnt fully funded is completely wrong, she told Fairfax Media, pointing out revenue raised by the 0.5 per cent Medicare levy and the $6.5 billion saving in reforms to the private health insurance rebate. The NDIS is fully funded into the future. Although Morrison has not revealed much detail on how much funding is required and which areas of welfare will be cut as a result, Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield weighed in with his view of the balance sheet. Of the $22 billion cost of the scheme once fully rolled out in 2018-19, about $10 billion will come from the states. The Commonwealth will continue to contribute the $3 billion it currently spends on non-income disability supports plus $9 billion of new investment. According to Fifield, the Medicare levy will cover only about 40 per cent of the new investment – or about $3.6 billion a year – leaving a significant gap. (from the article) - [Cat]
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 21:37:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015