It’s pretty good

Not really. Labor have released far better ones in the past.

Better than we’ve had

I don’t agree there either. The NDIS cuts, which I’ll get to further down, are atrocious and will kill people. The developer giveaway is disgraceful.

substance behind bribes to mates

I’m not sure what’s meant by that but bribes to mates are never good for the country. That kind of thing along with jobs for mates costs us billions of dollars.

NDIS was always gonna get slashed

NDIS needs some overhaul in certain areas which have already been identified and worked on, but there is no justification at all for 50% cuts to community and social participation budgets. That will result in suicide; that’s already been flagged by NDIS clientswanting to access assisted dying, clients who will probably lose much or all of their funding. The minister dismissing clients without review is subject to political whim. There is no need to change the definition of functional capacity.

you can’t afford to deliver healthcare

There’s another problem; the NDIS is distinct from ‘healthcare’ and it serves a number of areas conventional healthcare doesn’t, to the point where it can’t be called healthcare. I’m a plan manager so I see what services the scheme covers which were never available elsewhere before it, which should have been. Before we had this scheme, a lot of things now addressed were taken care of by carers and parents at great cost, personally and financially. We only now know what that cost is. The upshot is the increased quality of life for the vast majority of clients on the scheme plus the industry it’s created. Yeah, certainly, there were and are issues around providers and licensing, those parts of the amendment bill aren’t really under debate. I look forward to the licensing requirements.

We can afford to deliver this program, even without tax cuts that really don’t help, or an export tax on gas, or even a developer giveaway. We’re a wealthy country.

the government is too neoliberal

Yeah righto.

The government provide people like me a good platform with the NDIS scheme, to manage my sons needs without too much interference from them. Furthermore, this governments platform, it’s checks and balances and what it expects from us in return is much tighter and better managed than the last ones system, where I could have done dodgy invoices and pulled thousands if I wished. I don’t get a lot of oversight from the NDIA but they’re fairly supportive with issues and they process claims very quickly.

What this government has failed in, in its quest to run this like an Excel program in an accountants office, is the ability of the people reviewing plans to make the proper decisions on funding we need. Before, they seemed to fund on actual need and capacity. Now, it’s money saving and a push toward services outside that don’t exist.

Anyway, nup, it’s not a great budget. I’m furious about that infrastructure giveaway, that’s a shocking policy, stolen from fucking Jarrod Bleijie of all people. They wouldn’t lend that 2b to low income people and families to buy property but they’ll hand it to Comiskey Group who’ll buy another pub with it or bank it. And they will buy land and bank it, not put pipes in with it.

Edit: I’ll note here as well, in light of funding difficulties in terms of appropriateness with this government, it’s both ways; I’ve told them we don’t need certain things funded that have still been funded and provided medical evidence for things we’ve needed but been refused. The funding turned in has been higher than that requested. It’s just confusing.