As Jim Chalmers was navigating his economic reform roundtable, his colleague Mark Butler on Wednesday took a dive from the 10-metre board into the pool of budget repair.
The announcement by Butler, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), that the government will try to curb its cost growth to 4–6% annually is ambitious in policy terms and robust politically.
Butler is carrying forward the work of his predecessor Bill Shorten in Labor’s first term. Shorten’s reforms aimed to contain the cost increase to 8% annually, from about 22% a few years ago. It is now around 10%.
