No wonder trust is broken: everything that’s gone wrong with the NDIS
The NDIS rollout is an abject failure once an innovative scheme, it has been mismanaged so poorly, its architects hardly recognise it.
(Image: Private Media/Tom Red)
Trust has been broken with National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants. People with disabilities are angry and upset with the government’s consistent focus on cost-cutting a system that was designed to improve their lives through independence, choice and control over how they use their funding to live and participate in the community.
Ahead of a major disability conference taking place today, two key NDIS architects have slammed the government’s handling of the scheme. Former board member of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA, which runs the NDIS) John Walsh said in a prerecorded speech the scheme was a lost opportunity.
Australians are going to pay more tax post-COVID
Source: Australian Tax Office.
The biggest unstated message from the intergenerational report released during the lull between lockdowns is that we will need more tax.
Not now. At the moment it’s a matter of throwing everything we’ve got at getting on top of the COVID outbreaks and worrying about how to (and the extent to which we will need to) pay for it later.
But when the economy is healthy again, taxes are going to have to rise, big time.
That the intergenerational report doesn’t say so explicitly might be because the government is sticking with its arbitrary and implausible guarantee that tax collections will never climb above 23.9% of GDP, which is the average between the introduction of the goods and services tax and the global financial crisis.
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Non-bank lender MaxCap is providing Franze Developments with a $97 million first-mortgage facility to build a two-tower residential and hotel complex in the regional Victorian city of Geelong.
The Geelong Quarter project at 44 Ryrie Street, will have an end value of $200 million. It will include 124 residential apartments and a 180-room hotel with internal swimming pool, gym and restaurant.
MaxCap is providing a $97 debt facility to Franze Developmentsâ Geelong Quarter in the regional Victorian city of Geelong.Â
The project aims to capitalise on the growing popularity of life outside Melbourne, in part driven by the pandemic, said Johnny Woodhouse, MaxCapâs state director for Victoria.
Martin Loosemore
Source: Unsplash/Brooke Cagle.
The federal government has declared its “independent assessments” plan for the National Disability Insurance Scheme “dead”. But it has another plan to save money: get people with disabilities off welfare and into jobs.
It is committing $3.5 million to building a “dedicated job platform connecting people with disability with employers”. It hopes 100,000 job seekers and 45,000 businesses will be on it within 18 months.
There are similar technological fixes in the pipe for the broader Jobactive employment services program. A new “digital services” model for job seekers is due to be rolled out from July 2022.
But technology is unlikely to achieve much without addressing the fundamental flaw in the government’s approach to helping those with disabilities or other disadvantages find jobs.