The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has shamefully built almost a quarter of their projected budget surplus on underspends in the NDIS.
Next year, Scott Morrison has counted a $1.6 billion underspend towards the budget bottom line.

This is a disgrace, not an achievement.

It’s $1.6 billion in services and support that people with disability will miss out on because the Government has botched the NDIS rollout at every turn.

It comes on top of a shocking $3.4 billion underspend in the 2018-19 financial year, and over $6 billion to date.
This is a direct result of delays in the NDIS rollout – with over 77,000 people missing out on the NDIS this year alone.

And it is a consequence of people being unable to use their plans because services and support are simply not available.
The NDIS has fallen into crisis under this Government.

People are getting poor quality plans; they are not being treated with respect; services are being pushed to the brink; and waiting times are completely unacceptable.

After six year of neglect, the Government’s knee-jerk announcement on NDIS prices – six weeks out from an election – is too little, too late.

The bottom line is, Australians with disability are the ones paying so Scott Morrison can bolster his books.

Catherine King MP, Shadow Minister for Health

Scott Morrison’s health and hospital cuts are causing chaos in Queensland, with every hospital in the state’s South-East now running at full capacity.

This is what happens when you slash $160 million of hospital funding from the state – doctors and nurses are forced to try and do more with less, potentially compromising safety and quality of care.

This is what happens when you force up the cost of seeing a GP with a Medicare rebate freeze – more people end up in hospital emergency departments.

And this is what happens when you let private health insurance costs spiral out of control – people ditch their cover and end up back in the public system even as private hospitals go out of business.

If the Liberals are allowed to lock in their hospital cuts for another five years we will see more of this chaos across the country.

A Shorten Labor Government on the other hand will reverse the Liberal cuts to hospitals by investing an extra $2.8 billion.

We will take pressure off the cost of seeing a GP by ending the Government’s freeze within 50 days of winning office.

And we will cap private health insurance premium increases so people stay insured and take pressure off the public system.

This is all part of Labor’s Fair Go Action Plan to fix our hospitals and strengthen Medicare. Only Labor can be trusted to fix Queensland’s – and the nation’s – hospitals.

Catherine King MP, Shadow Minister for Health