24 July, 2012
2GB Radio Sydney
Nights with Steve Price
23 July 2012
10.20pm
E & OE
Subjects: National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), COAG
STEVE PRICE:
The state and territory leaders are in Canberra on Wednesday to receive a report on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes has said that COAG needs to deliver long term certainty for that scheme. The Opposition is not sure this deal is going to be able to be pulled off. Senator Mitch Fifield is on the line good to talk to you again.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good evening Steve.
STEVE PRICE:
What makes you pessimistic that a deal can be done?
MITCH FIFIELD:
What I’m hoping happens at COAG is that the Prime Minister for the first time actually sits down with the premiers and negotiates. The premiers have been asking the Prime Minister at successive COAGs to have a fair dinkum discussion about funding shares. The only chat they’ve really had was at the last COAG, a brief discussion over dinner. The Commonwealth Government needs to get serious. They need to negotiate with the states because an NDIS can’t happen unless the states agree.
STEVE PRICE:
What sorts of amounts of money would we be talking about for NSW for example, Senator?
MITCH FIFIELD:
The Productivity Commission said that over the next four years, to get the NDIS started, there needs to be $3.9 billion committed by the Commonwealth Government.
STEVE PRICE:
Over how many years?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Over four years. The Commonwealth in the May budget only committed $1 billion.
STEVE PRICE:
So we’re already two and a bit short.
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right. The Commonwealth are leaving the states with the clear impression that it will be up to them to pick up the shortfall.
STEVE PRICE:
The states are broke.
MITCH FIFIELD:
The states are not in a strong position. The Commonwealth needs to explain how they will make up that funding gap.
STEVE PRICE:
I think it’s been estimated hasn’t it, that by 2018 the fully funded scheme could be costing the nation around $7 billion a year.
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right Steve. $7 billion is what the ask of the Commonwealth would be according to the Productivity Commission.
STEVE PRICE:
So what is your solution to this problem? I mean you’ve endorsed an NDIS, haven’t you if you win the next election?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right. The NDIS is something that all sides of politics recognise just has to happen. Before the May budget we were calling for a proper allocation of funds for the NDIS. Now there aren’t many areas where the opposition was calling for funding but the NDIS was one. And the Commonwealth only put about a quarter of the money that the Productivity Commission said was required to kick this off. So the Government has been talking a big game in the lead-up to the budget but they didn’t deliver. They’re trying to leave the impression with the public that the NDIS is a done deal that the NDIS is definitely going to happen. But Labor have not as yet committed to that.
STEVE PRICE:
Having supported it though, how are you going to pay for it?
MITCH FIFIELD:
What we have to wait and see is what our starting point is should we be successful and be the next government. We won’t know until we’re in office how far advanced Labor got in implementing an NDIS, and we also won’t know what the budget bottom line is. As you know Steve, over each twelve month period, the budget bottom line under this government has deteriorated by $10 billion or more. So we called for money in the last budget and, if the government had put it there, we would have welcomed it and we would have supported it.
STEVE PRICE:
Do you support trials in individual states?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Absolutely. The Productivity Commission, who have done a lot of work on this, recommended that there should be what they call ‘launch sites’.
STEVE PRICE:
So is that a trial to see whether it works or how much it’s going to cost?
MITCH FIFIELD:
It’s a trial to finetune things like the eligibility criteria, to make sure that before you do a full national rollout, that you’ve ironed out the bugs. So having launch sites is a good idea. NSW has promoted the Hunter Valley. Victoria has put forward Geelong. That’s a good idea. But the Commonwealth has yet to sit down with the states and negotiate how that is going to work. What I hope is that at COAG the Prime Minister does that.
STEVE PRICE:
I get a sense that you don’t think that’s going to happen.
MITCH FIFIELD:
We’ve had the ridiculous situation where we’ve literally had state disability ministers and state treasurers chasing Jenny Macklin around the country to try and get her to talk turkey. I hope things change at COAG.
STEVE PRICE:
Good to talk to you Senator. Thanks a lot.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks Steve.