DisabilityCare Australia launches

Image source: DisabilityCare Australia

DisabilityCare Australia, a new scheme for providing support for people with disability, has commenced in locations across Australia. The launch of the scheme, formerly known as the NDIS, is the culmination of years of advocacy from the disability and carers sectors. It builds on work undertaken through the National Disability Strategy, the Productivity Commission, COAG and agreements reached between the Australian and state and territory governments.

This post provides a brief guide to some key aspects of the DisabilityCare Australia launch.

A short history of increases to the Medicare levy

The Government is proposing to introduce legislation during budget week to raise the Medicare levy by 0.5% in order to help fund DisabilityCare, the name of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme. This recent Flagpost outlined some of the reasons for securing funding for the scheme. The Medicare levy has been increased a number of times, and there have also been occasions where an increase has been proposed in order to fund other proposals.

Paying for the NDIS: what about a levy?

Image source: Australian Government

There is increasing speculation that the Gillard Government is considering introducing a levy to help pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The question of how the NDIS would be financed was one of the key issues examined by the Productivity Commission (PC) in its inquiry which lead the Government to introduce the scheme.

This post outlines the importance of the financing issue and what the Productivity Commission recommended as a model for funding the NDIS. It highlights some of the key questions relating to the design of a levy for the NDIS.

The question of equivalence: aged care or the NDIS for those over the age of 65

Image source: Living Longer Living Better website

The legislation to establish the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is due to be debated in Parliament this week. Under the legislation, people with a disability aged under 65 will be able to apply to receive NDIS supports but those aged over 65 will not. NDIS participants who turn 65 will have a choice about whether to remain in the NDIS or switch to the aged care sector. However, once NDIS participants over the age of 65 enter the aged care system (either residential care or home support), they will be unable to access the NDIS. This assumes a degree of equivalence between supports available for people with a disability in the aged care system and those that would be provided under the NDIS.

Social inclusion - what is it good for?

Image source: Australian Government

In recent weeks, social inclusion has become a topic of some debate. This follows reports that, subsequent to his appointment to the social inclusion portfolio in last year’s front-bench reshuffle, Mark Butler was unable to define what social inclusion means.

In response to an article on social inclusion by Butler published late last year, Senator Mitch Fifield and former Keating Government Minister Gary Johns both criticised the term as being devoid of substance. Fifield went on to propose that the Social Inclusion Board should be abolished, with the $3 million annual cost of the Board being allocated towards the $6.5 billion annual cost of a disability insurance scheme.

The above comments beg the question: What is meant by the term social inclusion, and is it as inconsequential in policy making terms as Fifield and Johns suggest?

Disability employment in Australia and the OECD

Source: University of York

Accounting firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has released a report outlining a series of principles that it believes should guide the implementation of the national disability insurance scheme proposed by the Productivity Commission. In the report, PwC cites statistics which indicate that Australia ranks 21st out of 29 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in employment rates for people with a disability. It also highlights the fact that Australia is ranked 27th out of 27 OECD countries when it comes to relative poverty risk for people with a disability.

The first of these figures begs the question: Why does Australia perform so poorly relative to other OECD countries in terms of employment of people with disability? And, relatedly, are there any lessons to be learned from other OECD countries as to how this situation might be improved?

National disability insurance and the new parliament

Australia’s hung parliament has raised questions about the future of large-scale economic reforms such as emissions trading, the mining tax and national broadband. One significant potential reform in the social policy area over which there may also be uncertainty is national disability insurance.

In recent years, there have been increasing calls from within the disability sector in Australia for the introduction of a new, national, long-term mechanism for funding support for people with disability—known as national disability insurance.