Hands up who doesn't think the National Disability Insurance Scheme is a good idea? Anyone? Didn't think so.
I call it the 'There By The Grace Of God Go I' effect - that simple understanding that without warning, without reason, any one of us could be hit by a car and left a quadriplegic, discover our child has a genetic defect, or let our guard down for a second and do something so stupid that it leaves us disabled.
The NDIS is a promise that, if such a tragedy occured, our fellow Australians would look after us, would shoulder the burden, would not leave us for dead.
Recently the Federal government has hinted at changes to the scheme: now calling launch sites 'trial' sites and saying that due to a 'massive blowout' in the scheme's inital costs, it's now talking with states and territories about making it more cost-effective.
I just hope that while trying to produce as effective and efficient a scheme as possible - a noble cause - Tony Abbott's government doesn't lose sight of Australians' support for the idea.
In May, I did a story that gauged public reaction to the news that the Gillard government planned to fund the NDIS through an increase in the Medicare Levy. That increase would cost, on average, around $360 per year, per taxpayer. My first stop was to seven-year-old Billie Fabig's house, a haven in northern Sydney for a child confined to a wheelchair. Wide corridors, ramps, a gorgeous view of bushland and an au pair to help Billie's mum Heike look after her daughter. Billie wasn't the only living thing Heike cared for, also rescuing injured wildlife and nursing them back to health on her balcony. But all this serenity came at a price and Heike, a highly-educated woman with several degrees, wasn't able to look for paid work because care for her daughter was so expensive.
To her, an NDIS made perfect economic sense because she'd be able to employ someone to help look after Billie more often, while she could contribute to society in other ways, including paying taxes though a paid job. It made sense morally too, knowing that her daughter's contributions, achievements and dreams would be valued by the wider community.
So then I went to an outdoor mall in green, leafy north shore Sydney, a place of affluence and carefree shopping, to see just who would be willing to fork out $300+ to give Billie and her family an easier life. As always, I tried to vox pop a cross section of the community - a young mum, a businessman, a hard-working migrant, a older couple, some ladies who lunch and a couple of young, hipster types. With two exceptions, every person I asked supported the NDIS and the idea that taxpayers would fund it.
The businessman said that while he was happy to help disabled people, he didn't think the funding model was sound. Fair enough.
But the vox pop that really took me aback was from a middle-aged woman. "It's shocking," she immediately said, with a fair bit of feeling in her voice. When I pressed her on why she took that view, she acknowledged that she didn't understand the NDIS very well, hadn't read enough about it, but just felt that an increased medicare levy was unfair.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and as a journalist, my job is to air those opinions, regardless of what I might personally think. But her response left me flummoxed. I felt concerned for her and I wondered why she sounded so angry about a chance to help the disabled.
In my story, I chose not to use the bit where she denounced the funding plan as "shocking", instead using the bit where she acknowledged she needed to know more about it. "Shocking" would have made a stronger statement, been more sexy, but it wasn't truly indicative of how she felt.
Almost seven months later, I hope she's had a chance to learn more about the NDIS and has re-thought her initial reaction to funding it. I hope the talk that's around now about "massive blowouts" doesn't drive her further away from embracing the chance to help those less fortunate.
Because as we all know, there but for the grace of God, go I.
