May 4 2013
I was fascinated by the media’s framing of the NDIS debate this week. Within 48 hours it moved from reporting a naked tax grab by the Prime Minister, to a worthy initiative when Mr Abbott put the national interest ahead of his political interest. Update below May 15 2014
November 29 2012 – NDIS Bill is introduced in Parliament with Coalition absent.
Tony Abbott: “We have supported the NDIS every step of the way.” NDIS Bill Introduction 29/11/2012 with only 6 LNP MPs present.
December 6 2012 – NSW signs on to the NDIS
PM Julia Gillard, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and NSW Disability Services Minister Andrew Constance at NDIS press conference in Canberra on Thursday 6 December 2012. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
In the lead up to the NDIS Medicare Levy announcement, Joe Hockey and News Limited were the fiercest critics.
Falling revenue forecasts mean Gonski and NDIS reforms are unaffordable: Joe Hockey
Monday April 29: Government leaks the possibility of Medicare Levy
Economists say levy needed to fund NDIS
Levy on table to fund $15bn NDIS
Interestingly the above story and headline in the print edition of The Australian was changed online from Abbott blasts plans for a levy to fund the NDIS to Julia Gillard expected to reveal NDIS levy details
NDIS levy could curb growth: Joe Hockey
Hockey “If the economy is under-performing, you don’t tax it to increase performance. You never tax and regulate your way to prosperity, this is something the Labor Party just doesn’t get. You don’t improve economic growth by increasing taxes.”
Tuesday April 30: Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces 0.5{17ac88c265afb328fa89088ab635a2a63864fdefdd7caa0964376053e8ea14b3} levy to fund NDIS
NDIS Levy Announcement
Peter Anderson, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) ‘We don’t necessarily need the gilt-edged scheme if we actually can’t afford it,”
Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey: “A levy being introduced today while the economy is rather fragile is not going to help the economy. It is going to hinder the economy. “The reason why we have grave concerns about having a levy is because business and consumer confidence is fragile and a new levy is not going to help business and consumer confidence,”
Government’s ‘Briefed Out’ Levy Covers Less Than Half of NDIS Cost
Increasing income tax the right choice for a sustainable NDIS
Julia Gillard ups the ante on NDIS levy plan
Wednesday May 1: The usual suspects take up their pre-determined ideological positions.
Consumer, business confidence at risk due to Medicare levy hike, experts warn
Steve Wojtkiw, chief economist for the Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI): This is not the time to impose new taxes.
Joe Hockey told ABC Radio: Now isn’t the time to be introducing any new taxes.
TONY ABBOTT: If you’ve only got half the funding, it stands to reason that you’re only gonna get half the scheme.
Thursday May 2: Abbott supports levy
The usual suspects are forced to change their position to remain in lockstep with Mr Abbott.
News Limited’s Gemma Jones: Politics is put aside in bid to support decency over the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Herald Sun’s Philip Hudson. Note: Victory and Abbott in bold.
Who could forget the gilt-edged Millionaire CEOs:
Presumably the levy hurts more than modernity and online sales? What about the tax free threshold from $18,000 to $6,000, the overall lower taxes since 2007, low interest rates and a massive retail stimpack boost at the height of the GFC? Bernie Brookes and Gerry Harvey must live in the same gilt-edged millionaire’s bubble.
How do you return a business to its former glory? Give it to Bernie Brookes.
Friday May 3 – MSM is trying to keep up with policy overtaking politics
Horse race journalism is the laziest journalism there is. It is opinion based and anyone and everyone has one of those. Insiders called for PM’s political death ever since 2010.
So what to do when the merits of a policy has wide popular support and support from both sides of politics? What if it transcends and breaks out from the lazy framing of left/right and big bad guvmint?
Easy. Flip the reality on its head and see what comes out.
Mr Insider himself, Barry Cassidy: Labor lets Coalition call the shots on NDIS
Michelle Grattan: Political reality overtook some cynical power play from both sides, but especially by the PM (How many times has Grattan written this exact same story?)
Just a reminder that for the Coalition, NDIS was always in the category of “aspirational” meaning the “never never”. There were no funds allocated, no policy work, no effort put into NDIS. None. Mr Abbott had been on a weeklong charity bike ride, while Hockey has been bagging every Government policy and its costings without providing any of his own.
It is the PM that has had a change of heart on the levy early this week, not Abbott , not Hockey. By Tuesday it became a policy reality.
The coalition had to do all the catch up from bad guvmint, great big new tax to moderate increase and a good start. The same goes for the MSM who lazily applied the same LNP political framing they’ve applied throughout. It was the policy substance that took them by surprise. Suddenly they had to come up with new explanations outside of who lost and who won. Explaining the values of a policy.
Could it be that just maybe the aim was to ensure that important national policy was secured for the future, in the spirit of medicare and superannuation? It took the old 1 – 2 trick to lure out the usual suspects from their opposition and then force them to confront the substance of the policy, the values.
Policy trumping politics? I have never heard that said from an insider. Keating said good policy is good politics.
Margo Kingston called it early and called it right: I feel the disability levy will transcend standard political analysis and game-playing.
@timdunlop @barossaobserver, Tim, I feel the disability levy will transcend standard political analysis and game-playing.
— 📣Margo Kingston💧🔥 (@margokingston1) May 1, 2013
Saturday May 4 – Victoria signs onto the NDIS
To sum up this historic week, mumbletwits put it best in describing the predicament for the usual suspects:
If u find @chriskkenny's tweets on NDIS levy confusing, it's because the Lib party line hasn't been worked out yet. Patience please.
— Peter Brent (@mumbletwits) May 1, 2013
Amazing what can happen in 24 hours, 48 hours or in a week in politics. From big bad guvmint and great big new tax to political wedging to above politics to national interest.
Update May 15, 2013
Let the record show, who showed up for word today and who did not.
