ABC Radio National with Waleed Aly
WALEED ALY:
Senator Mitch Fifield joins us now. Thank you very much for your time Senator.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Good to be with you, Waleed.
WALEED ALY:
Jenny Macklin, who’s the Shadow Minister for Disability Reform, had some things to say about this that won’t surprise you. This is what she said:
JENNY MACKLIN: I’m responding to Joe Hockey, standing at the Press Club yesterday, saying, in response to a question from the media about the, whether or not the National Disability Insurance Scheme was going to be protected from his cuts, he refused to guarantee that, he’s refused to guarantee it again today.
WALEED ALY:
Any assurances you can give us?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look, Waleed, it’s extremely disappointing that Jenny Macklin can’t resist the temptation to be partisan about the NDIS. One of the great things in the last Parliament – one of the few good things in the last Parliament – was that we were able to elevate the NDIS beyond the day to day partisan ruck. We are committed to delivering the NDIS. Tony Abbott made me the Minister for Disabilities in order to deliver the NDIS. And that’s what I intend to do.
WALEED ALY:
Right, maybe she’s not being partisan, so much as wanting to protect something that was bipartisan. Can you say that it will definitely be protected, that there definitely will not be cuts?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look, we’re not talking about cuts with the NDIS. The point that Joe was making – which I think is pretty unremarkable – is that we want it to be an efficient scheme. Now the opposite of an efficient scheme is an inefficient scheme. I don’t think anyone would propose that that should be the model for the NDIS. We want to make sure that taxpayers get value for every dollar that goes into the scheme and we also want to make sure that as much of the money that’s allocated to the NDIS goes to supporting people with disability – the people who need it. They need a new deal and I’m going to deliver that deal.
WALEED ALY:
But the way you’ve just described it there is to say that you were saying nothing particularly, but there is a context for this and that is that we’ve had MYEFO come out yesterday, the Mid Year Economic Review, or forecast that showed there is a budgetary problem, and you’re looking for cuts. Now you’ve come out and said you want this to be efficient, there is a context here that leads people to conclude that you may be looking to trim. So the question is a perfectly legitimate one to ask and it goes beyond just saying well we all want it to be efficient. You seem to be suggesting that there are inefficiencies that you’ve identified that you can trim?
MITCH FIFIELD:
What I’m suggesting is that we should always keep a weather eye when introducing a significant new program to ensure that it’s efficient, that it’s well implemented. Now, part of the context for the discussion that’s been happening over the past few weeks are the results from the first quarter in the NDIS trial sites. And what they show is that average package costs are 30 per cent higher than anticipated and also that half as many people have actually come through the NDIS and become participants – so it’s taking longer to process people and to set them up with their NDIS plans.
Now, any responsible Government would look at these trends, early though they are, and ask questions as to why that’s the case. Which is why, at COAG last week, First Ministers, Prime Minister and Premiers, Liberal and Labor, tasked the COAG Ministerial Council on the NDIS, which I chair, to ask the NDIS Agency for advice to unpick those early results, to explain why those numbers are out of what was forecast.
WALEED ALY:
I’m sure you can understand that people would be worried that what are now called trial sites are being used as a way of saying well, you know, the costs are a little higher than we thought, we’re now going to scale back what the services are going to be, so I’m just trying to figure out where the Government’s head is on this and what the Government is prepared to commit to on it.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Sure, I can understand people with disabilities being concerned, particularly, when you have Jenny Macklin and Bill Shorten who’ve spent the best part of today stoking fears. And while they’ve been doing that, I was chairing the Ministerial Council, actually seeking to give effect to the NDIS. So I can understand why there are people who have concerns. But this is something that the Coalition has been clear on, year after year. We support the NDIS, we want to see it fully delivered. We are going to fully deliver it.
WALEED ALY:
Right ok, we’ll see how people do feel about that, they’ll send me text messages no doubt, 0418226576, thank you very much for coming on the show.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Thanks Waleed.