In The Media | 17 January 2017

The NDIS Must Not Be a Trade-Off

The National Disability Insurance Scheme must not be funded from trade-offs the disability sector has argued, as tension mounts over federal government plans to transfer a $3.7 billion education fund into the initiative.

The government announced in the December mid-year economic review that $3.7 billion from the Education Investment Fund, used to fund university infrastructure, would be credited into the NDIS.

However it has now emerged the move will require the approval of a hostile Senate, leaving the $22 billion scheme facing a shortfall.

People with Disability Australia co-CEO Ngila Bevan told Pro Bono News the latest revelations underlined the need for the NDIS to be “off limits” to ad hoc funding decisions.“PWDA and DPO Australia have been campaigning against the establishment of the NDIS Special Savings Fund since it was announced, and remain concerned about any link between funding cuts that impact on people with disability and the NDIS,” Bevan said.

“We believe that that NDIS must be funded as a core public infrastructure program, like Medicare, and be off limits to these kinds of ad hoc funding decisions.“This sort of announcement creates an expectation that the NDIS will be funded from ongoing trade-offs against other equally important services, in this case, higher education.

Source: Pro Bono Australia