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NEWS + VIEWS

Helping Australia's disabled

 

'From the time the NDIS was first mooted, The Australian supported the principle of an insurance scheme to help our most severely disabled and vulnerable citizens. A compassionate, country owes them no less. NDIS data, however, is deeply disturbing, showing the scheme, even before it is fully implemented, already has strayed far from that vision. On December 31 last year, 1 per cent of NDIS participants with approved support packages had injured spinal cords, 1 per cent were stroke victims, 2 per cent suffered from visual impairment, 2 per cent from multiple sclerosis, 3 per cent from hearing problems, 4 per cent from acquired brain injury, 5 per cent from cerebral palsy and 7 per cent from psychosocial disabilities. But of 140,000 participants, almost 38,000 — or 29 per cent — have autism as a primary disability. The proportion is the same for those with an intellectual disability. More than half of all participants are infants, children or teenagers. Almost 40 per cent are under the age of 14. This is not what most taxpayers expected to fund. Many would regard the situation as outrageous.'

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'For some advocates, the NDIS has morphed into a sacred cow, beyond criticism. But it is neither heartless nor stingy to argue the venture needs to be redefined and scaled back to focus on Australians with such severe disabilities they are unable to work or care for themselves. Mr Morrison has done well getting the budget to a point where he can afford to scrap the levy rise. But the government and the states, with the commonwealth exercising broader financial leverage if necessary, must reform the NDIS before taxpayers are saddled with an impossible burden.'

 

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Who is Henry

 Henry Then...

"Henry Thornton (1760-1815) was a banker, M.P., philanthropist, and a leading figure in the influential group of Evangelicals that was known as the Clapham set. His 'Enquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Paper Credit of Great Britain (1802)' is an amazing performance. "...it anticipates in some points the analytic developments of a century to come. No other performance of the period will bear comparison with it, though several, among them Ricardo's, met with much greater success at the time as well as later... He was one of those men who see things clearly and who express with unassuming simplicity what they see."

This is the judgment of Joseph Schumpeter, one of the twentieth century's finest economists, in his monumental 'History of Economic Analysis', Allen and Unwin, 1954, p.689.

 

Henry Now...

 

Henry Thornton is the nom de plume of a prominent economist. Like his predecessor the modern Henry Thornton has been a banker and an advisor to M.P.s although he is not a politician himself. He is no evangelist but is keenly interested in a wide range of economic, social and political issues... 
 

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