NDIS funding still in future

29 Jul 2012, 5:42 pm   -   Source: AAP
Workplace relations minister Bill Shorten wants the four NDIS launch sites up and running. (AAP)

Workplace relations minister Bill Shorten wants the four NDIS launch sites up and running. (AAP)

Disabilities Minister Jenny Macklin says there is more work to be done between the commonwealth and states before the NDIS funding is made law.

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Future funding arrangements for disability reform will still have to be worked out with the states and territories before they are enshrined in legislation, Disabilities Minister Jenny Macklin says.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the federal government claimed a victory on Friday when NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu said they would stump up funds for launch sites in their states of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Late on Friday, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said he had written to Ms Gillard and that if governance arrangements were agreed his state would launch a large trial of 7800 people.

Ms Macklin said the government was drafting legislation to set up the scheme.

"This is legislation that will establish the scheme and of course, we will continue to talk with the states and territories about the shared funding commitment," she said.

Eventually legislation would be required to ensure the funding arrangements were law, Ms Macklin said.

The minister said the government was quite clear on the costings of the trial and scheme but the launch sites would help the costings to be finalised.

The funding arrangements are a point of contention between conservative state premiers and the federal government, with coalition premiers flagging the use of a levy to fund the scheme last week.

Ms Macklin said the premiers had agreed the area was one of shared responsibility and the commonwealth had made it clear it intended to shoulder more of it.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said the coalition was committed to funding the scheme, if elected, but it would come at a cost.

"We will introduce that program according to the Productivity Commission proposal which means we will allocate resources to this project to be able to start in full by 2018," Mr Robb told Network Ten.

"Any government - our government, the federal government - can ensure 2018 is the start date.

"It's a question of priorities.

"It probably would require the removal or scaling back of other programs."

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has been cautious in his response to the future funding of the NDIS, saying he doesn't want to raise expectations without securing funding for the scheme.

Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten said state premiers had tried to steamroll the federal government because their polling numbers were high.

"I almost got the impression they felt they could roll into town; they could just cuff the government around and say `give us more money'," Mr Shorten told Sky News.

But the premiers had discovered they had got it wrong from the people, not the federal government, Mr Shorten said.

"I certainly believe that the state governments need to do more than what they're currently doing," he said.

"Where that number ultimately ends up will be partly negotiation; it will partly be seeing how the launch sites work.

"Now, the states cannot expect to avoid their responsibilities."

NDIS

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