3 August 2012

An expert panel unveiled for the NDIS

| johnboy
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Joy Burch has announced the makeup of the NDIS Expert Panel:

ACT Minister for Community Services Joy Burch today announced the membership of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Expert Panel, which will guide the launch of the landmark disability funding program in the ACT.

Ms Burch said the Expert Panel included representatives from the community sector, and will be co-chaired by disability advocate Sue Salthouse and Community Services Director General Natalie Howson.

lt will provide oversight and will represent the interests of people with disability, families and carers, as well as disability service providers in the ACT.”

In principle it’s a no-brainer. Given the low risks of a family member becoming permanently disabled, but the gargantuan ongoing impacts as a society we’re better off all paying a bit more tax and having the government fund those in need.

We can only hope the often vexed implementation is done well.

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HiddenDragon11:26 am 03 Aug 12

As this is a National scheme, which will be legislated by the national government, and will likely feature prominently in the next national election campaign, I hope that the “bit more tax” required to fund it will be collected nationally and that the scheme will be fully nationally funded. That would be the best way of ensuring the ongoing financial viability of the scheme (with most state and territory budgets already under serious pressure), and for the little land-locked island known as the ACT, it would spare us a repeat of the growing problem we have of providing health services for residents of surrounding NSW, with inadequate compensation for that.

I will be surprised if any federal politicians have the courage to do it, but if ever there was a good excuse to increase and/or widen the coverage of the GST, this is probably it – with the resultant revenue dedicated (“hypothecated” for those who like the sound of that word) to the NDIS. Done this way, and with full federal funding and financial control, the federal government wouldn’t need to worry about naughty state and territory governments siphoning the funds off for less worthy purposes (and thus wouldn’t need to employ federal bean counters to keep an eye on them).

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