Live: Albanese says some ‘waste’ in NDIS needs to be dealt with as costs blow out

The growing cost of living, and what is (or isn’t) being done to address it in the budget, has been a hot topic this morning.

The ABC’s Tom Lowrey says it’s expected to be a “pretty difficult two years” for some Australians.

“Of course, the government has been questioned on this front as to what it can do. You would have heard… last night, there were no handouts, no power prices supplements or anything like that because the government argues that any money you give out to people in that fashion at this time is just going to add to inflation.”

The leader of the National Party, David Littleproud, has slammed Labor’s budget, accusing it of treating regional Australians like “second-class citizens”.

Mr Littleproud has told ABC NewsRadio that the centrepiece of the budget, a $4.7 billion childcare plan, doesn’t address the needs of young families in regional parts of the country.

“That’s not going to create one new childcare place in regional rural Australia,” he said.

“The young families out there that want to get into the workforce but can’t because it’s not about childcare affordability in regional rural areas, it’s about accessibility.”

He said he was not against the budget offering subsidies for families, “but that’s not universal childcare, if there’s no accessibility”.

Mr Littleproud also took aim at the budget for failing to address the rising cost of living crisis in regional Australia.

“The prime minister said when he got elected, no-one would be left behind. When you wake up in regional Australia this morning, you feel that you are being left behind.”

It comes after the federal budget failed to provide any benefits to the Medicare rebate.

There was some relief offered for PBS scripts, with the medicine co-payment cut to $30. But Dr Simon Benson says there was no change to healthcare rebates.

“I think this is the beginning of the end of bulk billing as we know it,” he says.

“When you rebate $39 for an appointment that lasts for up to 20 minutes and you’ve got to pay for rent, power, reception, computers etc and that’s not even including the doctor’s component, there isn’t really enough to offer high quality care.”

Business groups have raised concerns over suggestions the federal government might intervene in the energy sector to drive down power prices.

Last night’s federal budget forecast a 56 per cent increase in electricity prices over the next two years.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would consider “regulatory interventions” in an effort to address those price increases.

Jennifer Westacott from the Business Council of Australia says that might not be the best approach.

“That’s not going to drive business confidence, that’s not going to drive the certainty that businesses need to put those huge chunks of money at risk to do this transition to net zero. So I’m not sure that more intervention, more regulation is the solution.”

The PM and opposition leader have been out and about this morning weighing in on some of last night’s announcements.

You can catch up on their comments below 👇

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean says the prime minister has failed to deliver on promises to address the cost of living crisis and help New South Wales fund critical infrastructure projects.

Mr Kean says there was also no allocation of funds towards raising the Warragamba dam wall.

He told ABC Radio that the $7.5 billion in cost-of-living relief allocated nationwide is inadequate to combat rising energy bills.

“It’s clear that the Commonwealth government don’t care about NSW. That was not only seen in the cuts to infrastructure that we expected to receive last night, but also in the failure to address the energy crisis that Australian families have been left to fend for themselves on,” he said.

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast, Jacqui Lambie says there’s no easy answer to Australia’s budget woes, adding: “You cannot blame [Labor] for this.”

“They’ve been in for five months … You had nine years of the Coalition. This is their mess that they are cleaning up.”

She says the government should look at the stage 3 tax cuts to provide relief for those struggling.

“You can give some tax cuts, give them to those people on or below the poverty line.

“I do not need a tax cut. Anybody sitting on $200,000 a year that says they do, I say you’re being greedy.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie is weighing in on last night’s budget, and says she wasn’t expecting “to see a lot of niceties”.

“We know that we’re struggling, like many other countries. We’re going to have to tighten the belt. I believe it will get a lot worse.”

She says if Australians think they’ve missed out in this budget, “when the one comes in May I think it’s going to be a lot worse”.

“I say this to the people of Australia, be realists. We’re going into tough times. I believe we’re heading into a recession. Don’t go spending all that money at Christmas time.”

Let’s turn back to the NDIS now, which is attracting a bit of attention this morning after questions were raised about the scheme’s future sustainability.

Samantha Connor is the president of People With Disability Australia, and appeared on ABC News Breakfast a short time ago.

She says the NDIS has “been used as a political football for so many years”.

“We’re very, very tired of this. So, we never have these conversations about Medicare. You wonder why that is? Why do we not talk about whether we have the right to be sick and get help for being sick?

“It’s the same thing for being disabled. These are essential, reasonable and necessary costs that we’re addressing here.”

She says it’s crucial that “the NDIS is sustainable for generations, but also that we’re investing in Australians to be able to contribute to the economy, to get back to work”.

As we heard overnight, the government has set a goal of building 1 million new homes over five years from 2024.

The homes are expected to be built under a new national housing accord, which is an agreement between all levels of government, institutional investors and the construction sector.

Queensland resident Mark is now living in a caravan park in Logan with his partner and two children after losing their rental during the COVID pandemic.

He says to try and get back into the private rental market, he’s looking at having to fork out three-quarters of his wage.

“[The housing commitment] is a little too late to be honest. There are people out there really struggling, so with the housing crisis… it’s far too little, far too late. It actually should have been done a lot earlier,” he says.

Asked if he had any message for politicians, Mark says:

“We really need help, we need it now, not in two years or three years.”

Asked about the NDIS, after questions were raised about the scheme’s future sustainability, Mr Dutton says they’ll support “sensible measures”.

“Bill Shorten over the last five months has been running around telling people they can have more, not less, under the NDIS.

“That’s the promise they made going into the election, it’s what they have lived over the last six months and we will support sensible measures.

“[It is a] very important piece of our social architecture but it does need to be sustainable, it is more expensive now than Medicare.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is up now on ABC News Breakfast.

He says those on fixed incomes and pensions are “really copping it in this budget”.

“It is a grim budget and I worry for those families who are already struggling with an increased mortgage payments, in increased prices at the browser, and now they’ve been told by the government the complete opposite of what they were told before the election.”

He says the government has failed to properly address cost of living challenges.

“I don’t think there was an election promise about a 56% increase in electricity prices, and there was no mention about a 40% increase in gas prices.

“A lot of Australians thought they heard the Prime Minister before the election that he had a plan to deal with the cost of living pressures.”

Reporting by Thomas Oriti, Claudia Jambor and Wing Kuang

The opposition has condemned the federal government’s budget for leaving Australian families at least $2,000 worse off in the lead-up to Christmas. 

Liberal senator and Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume says the budget doesn’t address rising energy prices and the inflation rate which has increased the cost of living for Australian households.

“We would do an awful lot differently. Most importantly, we would tackle the source rather than the symptom of this insidious inflation,” Senator Hume told ABC NewsRadio.

She said the opposition would tackle rising interest rates through “far more cautious spending”, and avoid energy price shocks when transitioning to net zero “that are now baked into this budget”.

“This is a budget that deals with interest groups,” she said.

“It doesn’t deal with the issues that are important to all Australians right now. I’m sure all Australians are struggling with the cost of living.”

Asked if he believes Australia won’t follow other countries into a recession, the PM says: “I think that is right.”

“The budget shows that’s the case because we have been responsible,” he says.

Turning to those comments on the NDIS that we’ve heard a little bit about this morning, the ABC’s Lisa Millar put it to Mr Albanese that “people who rely on it are alarmed about the language that was being used”.

The PM says “Labor created the NDIS”, but there is “some waste that can be dealt with”.

“Bill [Shorten] is very passionate, he was one of the architects and I can’t think of anyone better to review it, to oversee that while giving people the confidence that we are very passionate about keeping the NDIS and making sure it achieves its objectives.”

Pressed on how the cost of living measures in the budget will counter some of the expenses Australians are experiencing at the moment like increased power prices, the PM says “we’ve been upfront with people about that”.

“We do know that people are doing it tough at the moment. We need responsible economic management in order to come through the other side.”

Pointing to investment in renewable energy, Mr Albanese says “we didn’t have an energy policy for this country, we do now”.

“We will see that benefit flow through. It can’t happen overnight.”

We’re hearing from Anthony Albanese now, who is speaking on ABC News Breakfast.

He says it’s “a budget that Australia needs”.

“It’s the budget that’s right for the times. We live in an uncertain world. There’s inflationary pressures we have to deal with…” he says.

“It was a difficult task we had to navigate in our first budget, but I believe we did it last night.”

Asked if the government had ruled out direct relief for Australians, the PM says “the problem with direct handouts is it would feed straight into inflation”.

“That would therefore not help people at the end of the day with cost-of-living. That’s the problem here.

“So what we had to do was target investment into ways that didn’t add to inflation. So cheaper childcare, more paid parental leave, more affordable housing.”

The ABC’s David Speers has put together a bit of a snapshot of what you need to know about the budget.

He says the outlook on the economy has framed the government’s spending.

“The war in Ukraine, the prospects of a global recession have all dramatically changed the outlook from where we were in the pre-election budget back in March.”

You can catch up below 👇

As we heard from the ABC’s national disability affairs reporter Elizabeth Wright a short time ago, disability advocates have reiterated that the NDIS is an “investment in our future”, after questions were raised about the scheme’s future sustainability.

Asked what the Treasurer would say to those who rely on the NDIS, Mr Chalmers says it is “an absolutely crucial service the government should and is providing to Australians with a disability”.

“Our task is to put people with a disability at the centre of the NDIS. In order to do that, we need to make sure we’re getting value for money for every dollar we spend.

“It will always be a central future of the services that a federal government should and will provide to people with disabilities.

“Interest costs are increasing, not as fast as the interest bill on the trillion dollars of debt we inherited, but the costs are increasing relatively swiftly. Minister Shorten has a review with people who know what they’re doing with the NDIS.

“We make sure it’s getting value for money, it’s efficient, but always people will be at the centre of it where Labor is involved.”

Pressed further on some of the cost of living measures to come out of last night’s budget, Mr Chalmers says “we understand people are under pressure”.

“A lot of the problems are coming at us from around the world but the impacts are felt around the kitchen table.

“When it comes to energy, we’re providing cost-of-living relief in lots of ways, trying to be responsible. At the same time there’s more work we can do on the energy market itself, the high price of gas, the high price of coal feeding into the high price of electricity.

“All that is a consequence of the war in Ukraine and other global issues but if there are things we can do here we will.”

Mr Chalmers says inflation will peak towards the end of the year, and “hang around for a bit longer than we would like”.

“Two reasons: Electricity prices, because of the war in Ukraine, and secondly, the natural disasters will push up the price of groceries because some of the flood affected communities are some of the best farming land in the world.

“So we will have a cost-of-living challenge ahead for longer than we would like. That’s why the cost-of-living relief is important.”