Victoria calls on Prime Minister to confirm NDIS trial for Barwon Region in Victoria
The Victorian Coalition Government calls on Prime Minister Gillard to confirm that Victoria will host one of the NDIS launch sites in the Barwon region.
Premier Ted Baillieu said Victoria's proposal meets the thresholds set by the Prime Minister and is consistent with proposals from other states and territories that have already been accepted.
"There is no valid reason why Prime Minister Gillard cannot now agree to announce a trial for Victoria's Barwon region," Mr Baillieu said.
During the Prime Minister's visit to Geelong on 27 July the Prime Minister repeatedly stated that the Commonwealth was seeking $40 million from Victoria to establish an NDIS trial in the Barwon region.
"Victoria has offered an additional $42 million over the period of the trial. This is more than the $40 million that the Prime Minister publicly proposed for a Victorian trial," Mr Baillieu said.
During a press conference in Canberra on Friday 27 July the Prime Minister said: "We've always said we needed Victoria to step up to around $40 million more and Victoria's doing that."
Victoria has also confirmed that Victoria's expected spending on disability services for clients in the Barwon region over the three year trial period has also increased to $290 million. This update is in line with the expenditure that has now been accepted by the Commonwealth as relevant in the case of other launch jurisdictions. The $42 million is in addition to this revised $290 million commitment.
Victoria's trial for the Barwon Region would:
- secure a trial for 5,000 Victorian's with a disability in the Barwon Region;
- provide an additional $17 million over the period of the trial for direct service delivery, delivering on the benchmark funding required by the Commonwealth;
- bring forward the start of the trial to 1 July 2013, a year earlier than the Commonwealth's proposal for 1 July 2014 commencement in Barwon;
- provide a one-off payment of $25 million to secure the establishment of the National Disability Transition Agency in Geelong, the home of Victoria's Transport Accident Commission, an acknowledged leader in social insurance schemes; and
- allow the Commonwealth to direct further funding directly to clients in the Barwon Region.
"I have written to the Prime Minister and confirmed again that Victoria has met the Commonwealth's requirements and I have asked the Prime Minister to agree to announce the NDIS trial for the Barwon region with me in Geelong this week," Mr Baillieu said.
