24 August, 2012
1179 AM Vision Australia Radio Melbourne
Drive Program with Robyn Winslow
24 August 2012
4.00pm
E & OE
Subjects: National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Julia Gillard, Olympic Dam
ROBYN WINSLOW:
Vision Australia has been buzzing today here at Kooyong because of Texpo, running today and tomorrow. It was opened this morning by Senator Mitch Fifield, the Shadow Minister for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector. He’s also Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate and the Liberal Senator for Victoria. He’s been in the Senate since 1 April 2004 and in the shadow ministry role since September 2010. Prior to entering parliament, the senator was a senior political adviser to the former federal treasurer Peter Costello and he held senior advisory positions in both the Victorian Kennett and the New South Wales Greiner governments. He was also a reservist in the Australian Army Psychology Corps and he studied politics at Sydney University.
Now the Senator very kindly opened Texpo this morning and here’s some of what he had to say.
MITCH FIFIELD (launch audio):
We need to make sure that for people who are blind and vision impaired, and that for people with other sensory impairments that they do have access through a National Disability Insurance Scheme to the technologies and supports that they need. We need to recognise that sensory impairments are different to physical impairments. They’re different to intellectual impairments. People need to have the opportunity to have solutions that are tailored for them. I think there is a role for bringing people who have a sensory impairment together, to speak with one voice in the design of the NDIS. I’m aware of the issues that we need to consider as we design the NDIS. I know that no one in this room will allow us to forget what needs to be done.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
And that was Senator Mitch Fifield opening Texpo this morning. He then very kindly agreed to stay back for an interview.
Senator Fifield if I can ask you, one of the things you’ve been quite strong on is that you think we need a bipartisan approach to the NDIS and you’re upset that the Government hasn’t really met you on that count. So I’m interested if the Coalition does win government at the next election, will you undo anything the Labor Government has put in place or will you pick up from where they’ve gone?
MITCH FIFIELD:
We’re not looking to undo anything in relation to the NDIS. We’ve always sought to bring a non partisan approach. There is such a need for a better deal for people with disability that we do need to elevate the NDIS permanently above the partisan fray. One of the mechanisms we have proposed to do that is to establish a joint parliamentary committee chaired by both sides of politics to oversee the implementation of the NDIS. Tony Abbott has written to the Prime Minister four times suggesting that we establish this oversight committee. And, to date, the Prime Minister has said no. Which I think this is a great pity. We need a mechanism that can lock in all parties to support the NDIS. The implementation of an NDIS will span several parliaments so we need to have an oversight body. And it would also ensure that the NDIS wasn’t the property of any one side of politics, but that it was owned by the parliament as a whole on behalf of the people.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
So if that doesn’t happen, the Prime Minister has said no four times now, how will you approach managing the NDIS if you win government?
MITCH FIFIELD:
We would establish that committee to lock in that bipartisan support. One of the frustrations I have is that the Government pays lip service to bipartisanship but each time we propose something to give that meaning, the Government says no.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
One of the key issues for the blind and low vision community is the eligibility for the NDIS. What’s your view on where that eligibility should kick in?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think if you grab the average person in the street and you said to them that an NDIS might not necessarily cover people who were blind or vision impaired, or might not necessarily cover people who are deaf or hearing impaired, they would be very surprised.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
Absolutely, but how do you get around that, because it is an insurance scheme, it does kind of kick out at 65. How would you get round it?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think there are two separate issues. There’s the age at which you need to qualify under an NDIS to remain in it past the age of 65. That’s one issue. The other issue is whether the NDIS recognises and covers people with sensory impairment whose needs may be periodic in nature. And those questions haven’t yet been answered. It looks in the design as though age 65 will be the cut off for eligibility for the NDIS, but in relation to eligibility for people with sensory impairment, there’s just no information at the moment. That’s one of the frustrations that people are having is that they don’t know how to have input to shape the eligibility criteria and they’re not receiving any information as to what the government’s current thinking is.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
And are you talking with your aged care counterpart on this issue as well because that might be how it has to go I guess, that aged care and disability have to go together.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Aged care and disability need to work together. And I can understand why in the design of an NDIS you might have an age cut off, because the purpose is to assist people whose disabilities aren’t aged related. But if that’s the case, you need to make sure that you’ve got an aged care system that does adequately support people who have impairments that are age related.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
And just a final question on the NDIS, the Coalition has expressed concern as to where the money is going to come from. How would a Coalition Government fund an NDIS if you were in government?
MITCH FIFIELD:
You’re right. The Productivity Commission said over the forward estimates, the next four years, that there should be $3.9 billion from the Commonwealth. The current government has only allocated $1 billion, so about a quarter of what the Productivity Commission said was necessary over the first phase. We would have welcomed funding certainty in the last budget for the NDIS. So the Government need to explain how that difference will be made up. I always come back to looking at the current annual debt interest bill of government, the amount of money the government spends servicing the interest on its debt, and that currently runs at $7 billion a year. So if different choices had been made, the money would be there today.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
There’s a quite topical issue today which concerns our Prime Minister and the press conference, quite lengthy press conference she gave yesterday in defence of the allegations that have been made through News Limited papers, in particular The Australian, about the circumstances in which she left Slater & Gordon some seventeen years ago. Do you, I’m interested in getting your comment on how the Prime Minister has responded to that and whether you now think she has put the matter to rest?
MITCH FIFIELD:
The interesting thing about this is all of these questions that are being raised and all of the information that has been put in the public domain are coming from Labor lawyers, trade unionists and Labor members of parliament. So the questions that are being asked are being asked from her own side. And I think that’s very interesting. We’re not seeking to make any allegations or to prosecute this case, but her own side of politics have been asking questions, including the former Labor Attorney-General Robert McClelland.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
Are you saying that you still think there are questions to be answered? She didn’t put it to rest yesterday?
MITCH FIFIELD:
It was an unusual thing, a Prime Minister holding an hour and a half long press conference to answer questions about activities in a previous work life. There is interest in the Canberra Press Gallery as to her conduct when she was a lawyer, but our concern as an opposition isn’t so much her conduct when she was a lawyer, it’s her conduct now as Prime Minister and the bad decisions that she’s taking.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
You also sit on the Committee for the Scrutiny of New Taxes, which means you’ve had quite a bit to do with the Minerals Resource Rent Tax and the Carbon Tax. Marius Kloppers at BHP has come out and said this week the decision to mothball the Olympic Dam is to do with global considerations, it’s not to do with either of those taxes. Tony Abbott has quite strongly said he thinks it is to do with that. If the CEO is saying it’s not, why would you disagree with him?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I think it’s a combination of factors. It’s global factors. It’s global competitiveness. And it’s also domestic policy. It’s also the mining tax. It’s also the carbon tax. Any CEO of a major corporation will usually be diplomatic in their language because they want to get on well with the government of the day but I think you’d be hard-pressed to say that the carbon tax or the mining tax have made things easier for projects like that.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
I guess final question, will you be glued to the set for the Paralympics?
MITCH FIFIELD:
You bet. Absolutely. It will be great.
ROBYN WINSLOW:
Senator Mitch Fifield, thanks for your time today.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks very much.