NDIS fund faces Senate inquiry
A new fund for cash earmarked for the national disability insurance scheme is on the way but it's likely to be first sidetracked to a Senate committee. Shadow families minister Jenny Macklin said Labor wouldn't oppose the legislation to create the fund in order that it can face a speedy inquiry by the Senate community affairs committee. She said the entire case for the fund rested on the assumption that necessary budget decisions to fund the NDIS had not been made. "This is a fib, a falsehood, a fallacy," she said. "It is a tired piece of propaganda, repeated time and time again by those opposite." Ms Macklin said the former Labor government's 2013 budget set out a 10-year funding plan for the NDIS. "This money is in consolidated revenue, it is there to fund the national disability insurance scheme as intended. But the government is choosing not to. This is an effective theft of funds that are meant for people with disability," she said. Under the bill passed by House of Representatives on Tuesday, cash would be earmarked for the NDIS but would sit within the government's consolidated revenue fund. The coalition will pour in budget savings to top up the $6.3 billion in existing disability spending that will be redirected to the NDIS by 2019/20.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter said Commonwealth financial responsibility to the NDIS in 2019/20 was $11.3 billion and that left a gap of $5 billion. "This is not a political problem. This is a problem of financial reality," he said. Originally published as NDIS fund faces Senate inquiry