Breaking Down the House: Budget Week Edition

Welcome to our new column, ‘Breaking down the House’, where we break down the confusing, remove the boring bits, and give you the important parts from what happened in the recent sitting of the federal parliament.

Our first edition is on what political nerds (like me!) call, “political Christmas”. Budget Week!

T’was the night before (political) Christmas, when all through Parliament House, all the politicians were stirring, there were even some shouts!

On Tuesday last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the federal budget. You could say he’s a little bit like Santa and gets to decide who gets a lot of presents and who gets nothing. The purpose of the Treasurer handing down the budget is it allows the public (people like you and me) to know where the government will be spending money. 

Money, budgets and politics can be boring, overwhelming and confusing, so let me break down the important bits - who got presents and who didn’t.

Was the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) on the naughty or nice list?

Well, I don’t think the NDIS was on Santa’s list at all. We saw a few announcements here and there, but nothing too surprising. Here is what the NDIS got:

• $385 million in funding for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to lift the staff cap, employing 380 new NDIA staff
• $126 million to go toward cracking down on dodgy providers (they are definitely on the naughty list!) 

There has been a lot of talk about the NDIS leading up to the budget and how expensive it is. The budget predicted the average cost of the NDIS would grow 14 per cent, per year, over the next decade.

An overspend is not surprising, given that people with disability who are on the scheme will tell you it hasn’t been working well for the last few years. Let’s not forget disabled people have been going up against teams of top-tier lawyers at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) when appealing NDIA decisions. 

In my opinion, there is an easy place to make a cost saving. 

The cost increase in the budget also assumes the Albanese government is going to continue to deliver the NDIS in exactly the same way the Morrison government had planned for the next four years. I think we can all confidently say that's not going to happen. 

There is an independent review into the NDIS currently under way, which will no doubt be looking for ways to save money without taking services away from people with disability. 

Disabled people are first to unwrap fee-free TAFE places

For young people leaving school and those looking for a change in careers, the Treasurer’s commitment to 500,000 fee-free TAFE places by 2023 will be a relief. 

The fee-free places mean you don’t pay anything, but will focus on courses in the “caring economy”, meaning in areas like aged and disability care. That’s great news for disabled people on two fronts - more job opportunities if you want to do that kind of work and more people to choose from if you’re looking for support workers. 

The good news keeps on coming with the fee-free places going to “priority groups” first and people with disability are on the list of priority groups. Hooray!

The big present - Secure Jobs, Better Pay

The government finished off the week by introducing the “Secure Jobs, Better Pay” Bill into parliament. The Bill, which still needs to be debated and passed by both houses of parliament before it becomes law, will make heaps of changes to everyone’s rights in the workplace. 

The Bill includes stronger rights to request flexible work for priority groups and, in a big win, people with disability were once again listed as a priority group. 

Here’s what the changes will mean.

At the moment, when you ask your employer if you can work flexibly to suit your disability needs - whether that’s working from home or working flexible hours - your employer can just say no. They don’t even need to give you a reason. However, if this Bill passes through parliament, they can’t just say no. 

The changes mean employers are legally required to try and reach an agreement with you on the requested arrangements. This may include them proposing an alternative solution if your request cannot be accommodated on reasonable business grounds.

This is a really critical change for people with disability who often need small adjustments to make working accessible to us. So whether you’ve already got a job that’s inflexible or you don’t have a job because you need a little bit of flexibility, this Bill is a big deal for you.

We’ll keep an eye on it as it moves through a parliamentary committee for consultation and then comes back to the parliament to be debated and voted on.

Some stocking fillers

Disabled people are more than just NDIS plans. We access housing, we go to schools, use hospitals and ride on public transport. So there are other parts of the budget that will impact us too. 

There were announcements on a new Housing Accord and more detail on how the government plans to make childcare cheaper, plus a bucket-full of announcements to address climate change.

When does Santa come again?

Luckily, we don’t need to wait too long before another federal budget. There will be one in July 2023, which is when the full, bigger budget is handed down. We will be keeping a close eye on what presents the Treasurer gives out, and hopefully we see more invested into services that will benefit people with disability. 

Happy (political) Christmas to all! And to all, a good night!