Be hardhearted with the handicapped

Brian Howe is, from what I  know of him, a Christian motivated by altruism -- a former Uniting Church Minister, in fact. That's where we part company. I do not believe altruism is a sound basis for social or economic policy. I also understand Brian Howe, who was formerly Deputy Prime Minister in the Keating government and a member of the Victorian Socialist Left, doesn't like people disagreeing with him. He thinks they are evil. So I will reassure him that I am very, very un-PC -- or possibly evil -- as my readers are about to find out.

Today (11 April 2012) I heard Jenny Macklin, Minister for Disability Reform among other things, outline some of the thinking for  National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Following the talk, I rang the president of one political advocacy group, who is one of the most switched on people in Australia. He said he's never heard of it. When  told him it would cost $6.5 to 8 billion annually in its start up phase,  he was astonished. 'More than even more than the $6 billion Gonski wants to spend. Why haven't I heard of it?' was his reaction.

Now the Productivity Commission, which produced a report for the government, says there are 410,000 severely disabled people in Australia needing ongoing care and support, of whom 295,000 are currently receiving support. They say the current system is 'unfair, underfunded, fragmented and inefficient.'

You, like me, are probably wondering where all these disabled people came from. Australia has never had an epidemic,  it's never suffered from a famine, the total people killed in wars on Australian soil number less than 1,000, there have been no great religious movements -- nothing much good -- or bad -- has ever happened here. As for inventions, I was told we invented the stump jump plow (not many stumps around these days) and the spectrometer, and of course you'll find one of those on every corner throughout  the world.

 The word in Young and Jackson's front bar is that there are four main causes of disability:  back pain, obesity, psychosis induced by marijuana consumption  and depression.

Now, an insurance policy must have a premium based on an assessment of risk and it must have an assessment system when a claim is made. If it doesn't have those things, it's not insurance, it's a levy. This raises some interesting questions: obesity and drug dependence are self inflicted. Back pain is known as Mediterranean back for obvious reasons -- it can't be proved or disproved, even by experts. Same for depression. What about mothers over 40? They have a higher risk of having babies with birth defects. What at are the premiums going to be for these people?

In Taiwan, a rich country  I have seen disabled people with grotesque facial growths, burns victims with only the stumps of  fingers and people who are obviously mentally disturbed begging for a livelihood. No one wants that. By the same token, the Productivity Commission figures are fanciful as a guide to earning a living.  A disability doesn't stop someone from earning a living. From what I can see, it boils down to a takeover of State functions and vibrant private sector service providers by the Feds.