NATIONAL Disability Insurance Scheme chief Bruce Bonyhady has warned the Abbott government against accepting any Commission of Audit recommendation to cap spending on disability entitlements, as public servants consider strike action in response to proposed job cuts.
The independent commission’s report, which is expected to guide aggressive cost-cutting in the Abbott government’s first budget on May 13, will be released at 2pm (AEST) today.
The audit commissioners have proposed the abolition and privatisation of some federal agencies and suggested responsibility for health and education and other services be given to the states and territories, according to a series of leaks published this morning.
They have called for a cap on National Disability Insurance Scheme spending and for the rollout timetable to be slowed, News Corp reports.
The Australian National Preventive Health Agency could also be on the chopping block alongside Defence Housing Australia, which manages and owns properties for defence families, Fairfax Media reports.
A $15-$20 co-payment – more than the $6 fee currently being proposed – to see a bulk billing doctor is also among the recommendations, The West Australian reports.
Mr Bonyhady, who chairs the National Disability Insurance Agency, claimed his agency was meeting its current budget and warned the NDIS’s costs could actually blow out if benefits were capped.
“Any unnecessary cap on eligibility or on reasonable and necessary benefits will result in the same broken system that we have today – one in which people prove how disabled they are, rather than what they’re capable of, and one which does not invest in people to maximise their independence,” Mr Bonyhady told ABC Radio.
“If you capped this scheme in the way that the previous disability scheme was capped, disability spending would ultimately end up costing twice what the NDIS is going to cost.”
Nadine Flood, national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, expected the commission could recommend axing up to 25,000 public sector jobs, on top of the 6000 positions already lost since the election.
“The government made a clear election promise that it would cut no more than 12,000 public service jobs by natural attrition,” Ms Flood said.
“There is no way you could do the sorts of things that are being canvassed as being in the Commission of Audit without closure of agencies, mergers, moving responsibilities to the states without many people around the country being forced out of their jobs.”
Ms Flood claimed the public service had “shrunk” in recent years, relative to its responsibilities.
Asked whether the union could take industrial action, Ms Flood said: “We’re going to wait to see the Commission of Audit and the budget before determining our response of course, but what I will is these are real people doing real jobs with real bills and mortgages to pay.”
“The Health Department has people who ensure decent national standards in aged care and nursing homes to ensure that our parents aren’t actually getting kerosene baths … that we have access to safe drugs and safe medicines through the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Who is going to do that work?”
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the Commission of Audit would affirm that the former Labor government’s spending growth was “unsustainable and has to be addressed”.
“What the Commission of Audit is recommending is structural reform of the budget, structural savings. The government in the budget will pursue structural reforms and structural savings,” he told ABC Radio.
Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke denied there was a “budget emergency”, saying the Rudd and Gillard governments limited government spending since the global financial crisis.
“The truth is they wanted to confect or manufacture a budget crisis because these are the sorts of cuts that they actually want to bring in,” Mr Burke said.
Source: The Australian