The $22 billion behemoth is certainly vulnerable to cost-over runs (which I’ll get to).

But the most remarkable thing about this important scheme is the extent to which it has, since its conception in 2011, remained on-budget and on-time.

In its 2011 review, the Productivity Commission estimated state and federal governments were spending a combined $8 billion a year supporting people with disabilities.

It also slammed that old system as: “inequitable, underfunded, fragmented, inefficient and gives people with disability little choice and no certainty of access to appropriate supports”.

It recommended a shift from a welfare-style, block-funding for providers model to a scheme which puts money in the hands of disabled people to spend as they see fit to meet their needs and life goals.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald