3 May, 2013
2GB Nights
With Steve Price
2 May 2013
11:30pm
E & OE
Subjects: National Disability Insurance Scheme
STEVE PRICE:
Last night on the program as many of you rang and talked to me about the NDIS we interviewed the Minister for disability, the parliamentary secretary I should say for disability and carers, Jenny Macklin wasn’t available, we spoke with Amanda Rishworth and I must say a fairly underwhelming performance. Well the NDIS funding of course has been the big political story again today, the opposition leader Tony Abbott on his pollie pedal across Victoria has given the endorsement from the opposition but with some really heavy riders to it. Now the Opposition spokesman on disability and carers is Mitch Fifield. He’s been good enough to join us, thanks for your time.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good evening Steve.
STEVE PRICE:
I think we all agree that it would be great to have an NDIS, the method of funding and how we pay for it is a big issue. Are you annoyed that the government this week has tried to wedge you and Tony Abbott and the opposition over disability?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Steve I’m annoyed at any parliamentarian who seeks to gain political advantage through the NDIS. I’ve always been at pains to try and elevate the NDIS beyond the partisan fray which is one of the reasons that Tony Abbott and I have proposed that there should be a joint parliamentary committee chaired by both sides of politics to oversee the implementation of the NDIS so that it locks in that cross party support and people don’t feel tempted to play political games with it.
STEVE PRICE:
Talking to Miss Rishworth last night I made the point that you know, Julia Gillard said look I’m not going to pass this now I’m going to wait until the election. Well I said to Amanda Rishworth you don’t need the opposition you can put this bill before the parliament now, you’ll have the support of the cross benches, it will go through, the Greens support it, its got nothing to do, from a parliamentary vote point of view, with the Opposition at all.
MITCH FIFIELD:
If you’ve got the strength of your convictions, if you think something is the right thing to do then put it to the Parliament and test it there. I couldn’t understand why the Prime Minister said we need a levy to fund this scheme but I’m not going to seek to legislate it. It was quite peculiar.
STEVE PRICE:
And the whole plan of now funding this with a levy, if it is as important as we all think it is, it could be funded out of revenue, it doesn’t need to have a levy attached to it does it?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, that was the recommendation of the Productivity Commission, that it be funded from consolidated revenue because proper support for people with disability should be core government business not an afterthought. And that was the Prime Ministers view until a couple of days ago but she spent money on just about everything she could find and then realised that she hadn’t made any provisions for the NDIS. Hence her idea of the levy. It shouldn’t be necessary, it shouldn’t have got to this point. She should have prioritised appropriately but she hasn’t. We don’t want people with disability to be victims as a result of waste and mismanagement by this government which is why we are prepared to consider supporting the levy.
STEVE PRICE:
A half percent increase to the Medicare levy will only half fund it though won’t it Mitch?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right, the Prime Minister needs to account for how she intends to fund the balance of the scheme. She really brought forward half of their budget announcement, she needs to come clean with the rest of it. But she also needs to come clean with the eligibility criteria for the NDIS. We’ve got a broad outline of it in the legislation that’s been passed. But the NDIS rules and the NDIS assessment tool haven’t been released and I think people who are potential participants of the scheme are entitled to know whether they will be in or out.
STEVE PRICE:
Going to get on to some of those eligibility clauses in a second, lets just be clear we are having an election of the 14th of September, the polls say you’ll win. So you inherit this plan that you now would expect unless something goes terribly wrong to go through parliament in the five weeks of sitting time left. Is that your understanding? That you will inherit an NDIS that is in place?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Yes, there will be the initial elements of the NDIS rolled out…
STEVE PRICE:
But not operations completely until 2018…
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right, there are six NDIS launch sites, four of those go live on the first of July, so we will have, if you like, a test bed where we can refine the scheme before there is a full national rollout.
STEVE PRICE:
But you will not support this if its not passed before the election, you’re not informed of what the total funding packages will be, you want as you just said more understanding of access and eligibility, you want a Future Fund guardian, and you want release dates of deals with the states and territories. Are they the five conditions?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right Steve we want transparency around the deals that the commonwealth have done with the various jurisdictions, we want transparency around the funding. We want transparency around the eligibility criteria and we also want some security that the money raised by a levy won’t be raided and that’s why we’ve contended that the guardians of the Future Fund should have supervision of the fund onto which those levy moneys go.
STEVE PRICE:
Because my understanding is given that the full scheme doesn’t start until 2018 the Medicare levy increase will begin in 2014 you’re going the 14-15, 15-16, 16-17 financial years where money is being collected, that could be used could it not to improve a budget bottom line. There is no guarantee that money is sitting in a pot somewhere for disabled people is there?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s why we have to have that guarantee that any money raised by a levy goes into a locked box, that the…
STEVE PRICE:
… Like the Future Fund.
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right like the Future Fund, and the guardians of the Future Fund are the custodians and would guarantee that that money can only be directed to the NDIS.
STEVE PRICE:
And the condition that you’ve put on that the rest of the funding you must know where it comes from, that’ll have to be in the budget won’t it?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right, there is no reason why we can’t be told that today, given they’ve brought part of their budget announcement forward, no reason why they can’t bring the full announcement forward. And given that the Prime Minister has done a complete back flip from saying there would be no levy to there now being a levy that’ll only cover half the costs of the scheme, she needs to account for the balance.
STEVE PRICE:
So when does the government need to assure you on those five points before you make a decision to completely tick off on this?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well before parliament resumes I would anticipate that the Prime Minister would…
STEVE PRICE:
…Sometime next week
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right she would seek to introduce the levy bill as soon as possible, we seek that information and…
STEVE PRICE:
…And what if she doesn’t?
MITCH FIFIELD:
I hope she does, there is absolutely no reason that she shouldn’t. Why shouldn’t she tell us where the balance of the funds are coming from? Why shouldn’t she tell us what the eligibility criteria are? Who is in and who is out? I’d be amazed if she didn’t Steve. I’m going to be an optimist here.
STEVE PRICE:
Well, I give you credit for that, I wouldn’t be so sure. Now you’ve spent your time in opposition, part of it at least in this area. The disability insurance scheme, does it cover people over 65? Because Amanda Rishworth didn’t seem to be too clear about that last night.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Sure, look if someone acquired a disability before the age of 65 they can continue in the NDIS, receiving supports for their life. If someone acquires a disability after the age of 65 then, as the legislation has been drafted, they will be supported by the existing age care and health systems.
STEVE PRICE:
I used the example last night of a woman, fictionally my mother at 60 has early onset serious dementia, does that qualify?
MITCH FIFIELD:
It would depend on the effect on her as an individual. If it fundamentally affected her capacity to look after herself and she acquired this before the age of 60 then yes, she could be supported by the NDIS.
STEVE PRICE:
60 or 65?
MITCH FIFIELD:
If she acquired it at 60, before the age of 65, then she’d be supported. If it was over the age of 65 then the support would be through aged care.
STEVE PRICE:
You haven’t got a sense that this has blow out written all over it? I mean health in this country with the baby boomer bubble and large numbers of people living older but getting you know, dementia is a massive problem, can we really accurately predict how much this is going to end up costing?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well the Australian Government Actuary have gone over the numbers that the Productivity Commission came up with and they found them to be pretty much on the mark. Obviously you do need to be vigilant about, I guess what’s called in the bureaucracy, mission creep. We’ve got to make sure that the scheme remains targeted on those Australians with the most profound disabilities because are the people who are in the greatest need of support.
STEVE PRICE:
Are you as a potential incoming minister in this area, are you willing to say that you are going to look at the trials that are underway in our state of NSW in the Hunter and there in other states, Tasmania and Victoria, if the trials show something that’s radically different that what you thought the outcome would be, will you tailor the scheme to suit the outcome of the trials?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well that’s the purpose of the trials is if something isn’t working you can adjust the scheme before national rollout. If there is something that was forgotten or that wasn’t anticipated when the scheme was devised it provides the opportunity to correct that.
STEVE PRICE:
Just finally before you go, we’re talking to Mitch Fifield, Bernie Brooks the CEO of Myer today said it at a conference yesterday that the .5% Medicare levy increase would have an impact on his business that consumers would have less money to spend. I think it was from the PR point of a dumb thing to say, but he’s right people will have less money in their pockets? What did you make of the comments?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look it was inelegant and I’m sure his PR person would be asking what happened there. But look, there is no doubt that any new tax is an impost on families, and we know a lot of families are doing it tough. And that’s one of the reasons why we’ve taken our time to consider this levy because we know every new tax is money out of the pockets of families who have competing interests. But ultimately we don’t want the government’s mismanagement to get in the way of the Australians with disability getting the support that they need. Which is why we’re prepared to consider this levy. But if it does ultimately go through the Parliament we would view it as a temporary levy until such time as the budget has been repaired.
STEVE PRICE:
Good to catch up with you. Thanks a lot.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks very much Steve.
STEVE PRICE:
Mitch Fifield there the shadow spokesman for disabilities and carers.