Future of the NDIS – 936 ABC Hobart Statewide Mornings with Leon Compton
E&OE
LEON COMPTON
Well, since elected, you’ve heard changes of language over the National Broadband Network as it applies to Tasmania. You’ve certainly heard changes of language as it applies to the Gonski education funding. One of the other big set pieces of policy that was delivered, well, as a trial, anyway, and agreed to by the then opposition was the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Tasmania is a trial site for the project where young people particularly gets amounts of money that they or their carers can use to assist into their – in their care into the future.
With changes of language on other big, in some senses, ideological and certainly expensive pieces of policy in the last couple of months since being elected, is the National Disability Insurance Scheme at threat or similar change too? Kevin Andrews is the Minister for Social Services in Australia.
Kevin Andrews, good morning to you. Welcome to Tasmania.
KEVIN ANDREWS
Thank you, Leon. Good morning.
LEON COMPTON
Is the National Disability Insurance Scheme at risk?
KEVIN ANDREWS
No, we are fully committed to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It’s in very early stages, as you indicated. We’ve got trials in a number of states, including a very important trial here in Tasmania, because it’s the trial that’s looking at young people with disability, and our hope is that we can learn from these trials what is very much a work in progress in terms of rolling out this scheme.
LEON COMPTON
As the scheme is budgeted on for rollout around Australia, can we continue to afford the cost projections for the NDIS?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Well, a couple of big issues in relation to how we roll it out in the future, given that we’re committed to it, one is that there isn’t funding for it fully beyond 2019, and that’s a matter which the Commonwealth and the states will have to come to some agreement in the future about, but also we are learning from the trials in terms of what the cost of this scheme is. We know, for example, in the early stages of the trial that only about half the number of participants that were anticipated have been enrolled. We know that there are additional costs so far, although we don’t know whether they’re just upfront costs for getting the trials going or something more permanent.
So, as I said, this is very much a work in progress through the trial to see how it’s going to work and how we can implement fully in the future.
LEON COMPTON
Are you concerned about the viability of the National Disability Insurance Scheme based on what you can see at the moment?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Well, it’s our task to make it viable. We’re committed to it and so we’ve got to make this scheme a sustainable scheme into the future, and that’s going to be one of the challenges. It’s not going to be able to be resolved overnight because we’re going to have to work carefully on the trial sites with the states in this process so that we can make sure that it does work properly in the future.
LEON COMPTON
I want to play a little bit of you, actually, in federal parliament as the Gonski – rather as the National Disability Insurance Legislation was discussed. Have a listen, please. This is Kevin Andrews, our guest this morning, as the Social Services Minister. Have a listen.
[Excerpt]
KEVIN ANDREWS
The Coalition has enthusiastically supported each milestone on the road to a National Disability Insurance Scheme. We supported the initial work by the Productivity Commission. We supported the billion dollars in the last budget. We supported the five launch sites. We supported the agreement between the Commonwealth and New South Wales for a full state wide rollout after the Hunter launch. And we support the legislation.
[End of excerpt]
LEON COMPTON
Does your support maintain as strong as it was when you made those comments, Kevin Andrews?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Certainly. Everything I said then I’d be happy to repeat or to reassert again now, Leon, just as I’ve said in the previous answers to your questions this morning. We support it. We supported it in principle from the outset, but there’s a task that whoever was in government after the September election would have ahead of them, in conjunction with the states, and ultimately the territories, in order to make sure that this is a very sustainable scheme.
Now, that’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen this year. This is a process that’s going to go on for a number of years, and one of the things that we were keen to do, and we’re going to do, is to put in place a parliamentary committee which has fair representation from all the parties to be part of the oversight of this to make sure it does work. So we’ve been transparent and upfront about it. We know that there will be challenges, but they’re ones that have to work – be worked through.
LEON COMPTON
Can you understand that as the government’s language has changed on the National Broadband Network since your election, as that has changed, indeed, as it would appear, you’ve torn up the model for Gonski in recent days beyond the funding commitment to 2014, that people are wondering that you might walk away too from commitments to the NDIS. Can you understand that community concern?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Oh look, I understand the concern in the community and one of the things that we were very careful to do about the NDIS was to particularly seek to reassure people who are profoundly disabled and their families and friends and carers that we were committed to this process, and nothing has changed in that regard. As I said, there’s a lot of work to be done to get from having a few trial sites, which is all we’ve got at the present time, to be able to provide a scheme for about 450,000 profoundly disabled people in Australia.
LEON COMPTON
On ABC Local Radio, our guest this morning, Kevin Andrews, the Minister for Social Services. Minister, what are you doing in Tasmania? What will you be up to in your time here?
KEVIN ANDREWS
This is essentially part of, for want of a better description, a road show. One of the things I decided to do on becoming minister was to travel around all of the states and at an early stage meet with my departmental officials, who do a wonderful job on behalf of the government, but secondly, to have a meeting with the various stakeholders in my portfolio, and it’s a very broad portfolio, so that I can start to have a rapport with them and start to hear some of the issues that are of concern to them. So I’m doing that as well as visiting a couple of services here in Hobart.
LEON COMPTON
Of course, some discussion in recent times about the prospect of raising the pension age to 70. In the few days that that’s been back on the national agenda, what’s the response been like?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Look, we’ve got no plans to do that, Leon. When people talk about raising the pension age to a certain level, they should also take into account that life expectancy varies from a person to person, but also different groups of people in society. And so life expectancy varies greatly, but at the – you know, we’ve got no plans to increase the pension age. It has been gradually going up to 67 under previous legislation that’s been introduced by the previous government, but we’re not planning to increase it to 70.
LEON COMPTON
What about some of the challenges at the moment in terms of the increasing costs that we know will need to come or be funded out of your department in years to come and some of the challenges about – the discussions around tax reform and where the money will come from to pay for our increasing social services of budget? How are you approaching that conversation?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Well, one of the things the government did and is already underway is a commission of audit to have a look at all of these things right across government. You know, there are important questions about the relationship, for example, between the Commonwealth and the state. Is the Commonwealth doing things which are properly and traditionally done by the states and is there duplication occurring?
So these are the sorts of things that the commission of audit will look at, particularly with a view to the medium term future, because the reality is that we can’t keep continuing to borrow into the future. That is sort of borrow against our children. That’s going to all have to come to an end at some stage, otherwise we end up in the sort of mess that many countries in Europe are at the present time. So that’s what the commission of audit is doing, looking at this medium to long term future of the, you know, the economics of the Commonwealth Government.
LEON COMPTON
On ABC Local Radio, good to talk to you this morning. When will you expect to describe the process, I suppose, of continuing to check in on the NDIS and to assess its effectiveness or areas where there might need to be change? Can you talk about the process that you’ll be monitoring that on?
KEVIN ANDREWS
Yes, there’s an NDIS board of the Disability Insurance Authority. It reports on a regular basis. My Assistant Minister, Senator Fifield, monitors that on an ongoing basis, and as I said, we will be establishing, probably in the new year, because there’s only two weeks of parliament left, a parliamentary committee which will have an oversight function over this process. So it’ll be able to report to the parliament on a regular basis in addition to what the ministers will be monitoring themselves.
LEON COMPTON
Good to talk to you this morning.
KEVIN ANDREWS
Thanks, Leon.
LEON COMPTON
Kevin Andrews, the Minister for Social Services, on Mornings around Tasmania.