25 July, 2012
ABC News Radio
With Marius Benson
25 July 2012
8.15am
E & OE
Subjects: National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), COAG
MARIUS BENSON:
Political agreement is rare in politics, but all sides do agree on the issue of disability insurance and the need for a national scheme to provide for all in need. But that in principle agreement breaks down over the issue of funding. Differences over that will be the focus of today’s talks. For more on the issue, I’m joined by Mitch Fifield, the opposition spokesman on disability. Mitch Fifield, good morning.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good morning Marius.
MARIUS BENSON:
Now there is agreement in principle on this, but all of these COAG agreements tend to be dominated by funding, and we’ve heard the states say that we don’t have the money. Campbell Newman from Queensland in particular says ‘we’re broke’. Are the states overstating the difficulties ahead of them?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think what needs to be acknowledged is that the states are not only bringing a lot of goodwill towards the NDIS today, but they’re also bringing to the table the money that they currently spend on disability services in their states. So the argument that the Prime Minister’s put that the states aren’t offering any money is just not right. But what the states want to know is where the balance of the funds will come from between what is currently spent by the Commonwealth and the states, and the cost of a full National Disability Insurance Scheme.
MARIUS BENSON:
The Prime Minister says there is $1 billion on the table from the Commonwealth, but the Productivity Commission says that’s not enough. How do you bridge that gap?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right Marius. The Productivity Commission said that over the next four years $3.9 billion would need to be spent to kick off the NDIS. In the budget, the Government allocated $1 billion. We called for an appropriate amount of money to be allocated before the last budget, and if the Government had put that there, we would have welcomed it. Given it’s the Labor Government that has departed from the Productivity Commission’s funding profile and timetable, it’s up to the Commonwealth Government to explain how they’re going to bridge that gap.
MARIUS BENSON:
Really the easy part of that equation is the opposition’s, where you say you need money for this, provide the money for this. At the same time you’re saying you must be in surplus and other things must be funded and you mustn’t cut defence. Is it a bit irresponsible? You are all criticism and no responsibility?
MITCH FIFIELD:
No not at all Marius. This is an area of genuine bipartisanship. We want to see an NDIS up and running. It’s long overdue. Australians who have disability and their families have had to go without for far too long. We would have warmly welcomed funding certainty in the last budget.
MARIUS BENSON:
What about the opposition, because the introduction of this as envisaged now, this national scheme, is a process over the next five years or so. It is supremely likely you will be the government within that period of time. How certain is it that you will provide the funds needed for a full national scheme?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Marius, we don’t know what we will inherit in terms of the NDIS trial sites. Will the current government botch those? We don’t know that. We don’t know how much money they ultimately will have allocated by the time we form office and we also don’t know what the budget bottom line will be when we gain office. As we all know, the budget bottom line has deteriorated by billions and billions each year after the budget has actually been delivered. But what we’ve proposed to the Government as a way through this is that there be a joint parliamentary committee set up and chaired by both sides of politics, to oversight the implementation of an NDIS. Because implementation will span several parliaments we want a mechanism that can ensure that the NDIS is owned by the parliament as a whole, not by any one side of politics, and also a mechanism that will lock all parties into supporting the NDIS.
MARIUS BENSON:
How confident are you that a multiparty approach will work? At the moment you’ve got this fairly hopeless patchwork of provisions across the country, which some people will be listening now saying they just want money for their wheelchair. Do you think or are you confident that within a reasonable period of time, by 2018, there will be a real national scheme?
MITCH FIFIELD:
There is every reason why it will work and every reason why it has to work. The core business of government should be providing support to people who face additional challenges for reasons beyond their control. If there is anything that government should be responsible for, it’s got to be that. And governments have got to get back to what should be their core business and an NDIS is part of that.
MARIUS BENSON:
Mitch Fifield, many thanks.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks Marius.