Bill Shorten Doorstop: Tony Abbott’s Press Club Speech, Opposition’s fiscal position, IR disputes

JOURNALIST: On the disability insurance scheme, Tony Abbott is saying that a Coalition government wouldn’t introduce one until there was a strong surplus. How different is that from the Labor Government’s position on this?

BILL SHORTEN: Well some of you know I’m very committed to developing a national disability insurance scheme. When I became Parliamentary Secretary, I was appalled at the second class lives which people with disability and their carers are living.

What I do know is that having a disability, or being a carer for someone with a profound disability in Australia means you generally lack both political power, because you’re busy, and you lack money.

The concept of a national disability insurance scheme is a Labor concept – we asked the Productivity Commission to work through how much it would cost. They then made the invaluable contribution of saying it’s expensive, but instead of it being viewed as a bottomless well that you just put money in and you never touch the bottom, they said it was possible to fund it.

This government has sensibly proposed scoping studies. I have no doubt that you will see our Prime Minister, senior Minister Macklin and the rest of us fleshing out much more detail about an NDIS – a National Disability Insurance Scheme. There is a clear policy difference between us and the Opposition – we want to set one up, we are going to do it, we’re going to make sure it’s costed and we will find a way, once we have all the numbers, to do it. Of that, you can have no doubt.

JOURNALIST: Can you put a specific timeframe on when it might be introduced?

BILL SHORTEN: Well again Mr Abbott showed what he didn’t know about the National Disability Insurance Scheme when he said it’s $6 billion and we’ve got to get back in surplus.

If he’d read the Productivity Commission report, and to be fair he may well have – it was a long report and he might have missed this table. The Productivity Commission proposed setting up a series of layers – so this figure of $6 billion, as posited by the Productivity Commission, is a figure which arrives in 2018.

This idea that this nation is too poor and it’s too hard to find a solution is a copout, and I think there’ll be a lot of people with disabilities and their carers who’ll be contacting the Libs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a policy backflip from the Liberals in the course of the next 12 months. Because when they get out back to their electorates after saying how wonderful Mr Abbott’s negativity is, there’ll be a lot of people with disability and carers saying hang on, the Labor side, they’re saying they’ve got a plan, they’ve got stages – they’re going to do it. The Liberal side are saying well maybe we’ll have a look at it depending on whatever else.

People with disability have had enough weasel words for decades. I thought this was an area of bipartisanship. Mr Abbott has moved away from the area of bipartisanship and I think that backflip frankly is as remarkable as his backflip from the direct quotes I read to you from Lateline and Triple M last year, when Mr Abbott said there would be tax cuts without a carbon price and now he’s said not only will there not be a price on carbon, we’re not going to guarantee the tax cuts.

11 Comments

Genevieve Tucker 2 February, 2012 at 2:40 pm

Agree. Abbott willl get a nasty shock at the next elections unless he recommits to the NDIS. Shame, Tony, shame.

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Fran Vicary 2 February, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Thanks for a thoughtful and honest critic, calling Abbott’s proposal for the cop-out it is.

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Josef Thomassen 3 February, 2012 at 10:42 am

I watched both members of Parliament, Bill Shorten and Tony Abbott, speaking at the National
National Press Club.
I do not believe “Tony Abbott’,” he didn’t know anything about the NDIS. At the N.P. Club, he spoke about the NDIS as if the NDIS had always been his baby.
If we look back, Tony Abbott was a Federal Health Minister, for six years, in the Howard Government. His biggest mistake was the withholding of 650 Billion Dollars, destined for our 750 Public Hospital’s, accross Australia. Our Health System, just about collapsed.

Now, he want’s to become Australia’s next Prime Minister. I am worried about the Nation!
I am worried about the NDIS, and some of the other badly needed health matter’s!
I could’nt believe Mr. Abbott as a Federal Health Minister, it’s very hard for me to believe him now!

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Nerryl 3 February, 2012 at 12:50 pm

Thanks for this artcle but can you ask Mr Shorten to answer the question regarding a specific timeframe rather turn the question into a rant on Tony Abbotts credibility on the issue? We all know what Abbott said but now we want definition to ‘the idea’ of NDIS or the government too has no credibility. We want the governments credibility explained because this idea is still in the idea stage.

I would like Mr Shorten as right hand man to the Treasurer to explain to us how the Prime Minister (and treasury) found close to 3 billion dollars overnight to bribe kids with an additional $4,000 each year to stay at school after 16 (many who the school system and other students believe should not) and cannot find the money for the regional trials that were suggested to start next year by the Productivity Commission?

Can you explain the baby bonus continuing when we now have maternity leave? Why we pay families to innoculate their kids when it can easily be mandatory through the family payment system unless through medical exemption?

Why the government are providing 30,000 new nursing home beds when the industry knows that older Australians want services to allow them to remain at home rather than abandoned into nursing homes (a far cheaper model but ignored in social policy).

All of these unessary payments would pay for NDIS.

Can you tell us why the NDIS is not legislated to start on the date we are being led to believe it will start or for that matter on any date at all? And why the release of money for NDIS has not found its way into forward estimates?

Answering these questions would set our minds at rest and show a real committment not based on pure rhetoric but rather based on action.

I am finding it hard to believe NDIS is going to happen when the committment is purely oral, not set through the functioning of government such as legislation or forward estimates or COAG agreements.

We are so used to scraps from the table of plenty that we remain gullible with fine words and very little action.

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Peter Anderson 6 February, 2012 at 11:55 am

Like most of the policies implemented by this government there are too many flaws…

Read between the lines idiots. MANY other disability services and funds are being raided to fund yet another Labour vote. I have a long term profound physical disability which prevents me from working, Thank God I am not under 35 else I would need to front up to new start each week to survive. Labour fund shuffling,
Yes this is a great idea in principle and if our country was still in surplus I would think this was a good idea being implemented by a governement with sound, well researched and proven policies but…
Put you hand up those who are on the DSP and are going down to buy a $5000 yacht this week?

Wake up to yourselves…

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kenny 10 February, 2012 at 10:48 pm

Mr Abbott and the LNP only discovered the disabled and mentally ill 18 months ago, so may take a few more months to come up with a policy.

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Julie 5 March, 2012 at 2:58 am

C’mon Bill…use your influence. Let’s get things moving. We’ve been fighting for 16 years, and others before us, for a better deal for people with disabilities and their families. We’ve got better things to do than keep on fighting. No wonder I encounter young people with disabilities who have no hope for the future…empty promises.

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Eamon 5 March, 2012 at 2:59 am

I want the choice to live near my family. We love each other. I need the NDIS so I can do that.

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Jim 5 March, 2012 at 3:04 am

So everyone is behind the NDIS. Do politicians think we’re idiots? None of you are REALLY behind it until you allocate the funds for the NDIS. Don’t tempt families like ours to leave our children at the Prime Minister’s Office, whoever is in government. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. DO SOMETHING NOW.

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Sharon 5 March, 2012 at 3:06 am

I am so very angry that all that’s happening with the NDIS is talk.

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Bill 28 April, 2012 at 7:20 pm

Lets be very careful here thats the Every Australian Counts campaign doesn’t degenerate into political point scoring and an apparent arm of the Labour government or you will lose me and my organisations support. Apolitical please and I agree with some of the comments here Bill Shorten ranting doesn’t help. There needs to be an implementation team appointed now. There is bipartisan support so why all of the talk and rallies, just get on and do it. You don’t need to announce it 20 times. While we are on the subject of Bill Shorten we are still waiting for a valid outcome from his AAWG (Aviation Access Working Group) to actually improvement disability access to air transport. Yet another example of three years worth of talk with no result.

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