The NDIS – more cuts, less taxes

The proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) places all government spending in perspective. The scheme will provide people with a severe or profound disability with the support they need to get an education, enter the workforce, and live a life worth living.

You could go through government spending program by program to compare their value against that of the NDIS, and most, if not all, would fail to provide an equivalent level of return for taxpayer dollars.

It is particularly galling that our politicians think that we need another new tax to pay for the NDIS. What have we been paying tax for if not the sort of services and supports the NDIS is supposed to provide?

The prospect of the $15 billion a year NDIS is an excellent opportunity for those who believe in small government to whip out their shopping list of government programs that should be abolished to help pay for the scheme.

Cassandra Wilkinson got the ball rolling in The Australian this week by outlining a number of programs where savings could be found: the $2.1 billion Schoolkids Bonus which replaced the Education Tax Refund; $1.8 billion from the increases to Family Tax Benefit Part A; $1.1 billion from the carbon tax compensation package for pensioners; the $2 billion transfer to Telstra; and $12.8 million for the Hugh Jackman movie, The Wolverine.

The Schoolkids Bonus and the first home owner grant should go, Judith Sloan suggests, in addition to broader reforms to federal financial relations.

I suggested in the Australian Financial Review this week that the government should look into the $10 billion the Clean Energy Finance Corporation receives and the $100 million in subsidies for trade between the Australian mainland and Tasmania to fund the NDIS. Government also spends on unions through the union education fund, and free translation services through the Department of Immigration & Citizenship. More savings within the disability portfolio are possible, including through income support payments such as the DSP.

The NDIS is a worthwhile program but we don’t need new taxes to pay for it.

Andrew Baker is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies. If you have any ideas on government programs that can be cut, culled and/or abolished to help cover the cost of the NDIS, feel free to email Andrew at abaker@cis.org.au.