Australia: $3.7bn hole in NDIS funding after transfer of education money fails

Australia/Enero de 2017/Fuente: The Australian

RESUMEN: Malcolm Turnbull se enfrenta a un inesperado agujero de $ 3.7 mil millones en fondos para el Plan Nacional de Seguros de Discapacidad después de que surgió que el gobierno no tenía el poder de transferir un fondo de educación y requeriría la aprobación de un Senado hostil. El gobierno anunció en la revisión económica a mediados de diciembre que $ 3,700 millones del Fondo de Inversión Educativa, que se utilizó para financiar infraestructura universitaria, serían acreditados en el NDIS. Las altas figuras del gobierno habían repetidamente dicho al australiano que no requerirían la legislación para hacer el movimiento. A las 39 universidades públicas de Australia se les dijo esta semana que el Departamento de Finanzas -el administrador del FEI, que ha estado latente durante tres años- había dejado claro que «la legislación tendría que ser enmendada para que el gobierno eliminara el saldo no comprometido del FEI Y transferir este dinero a un propósito diferente «.

The government announced in the December mid-year economic review that $3.7bn from the Education Investment Fund, which was used to fund university infrastructure, would instead be credited into the NDIS.

Senior government figures had repeatedly told The Australian that they would not require legislation to make the move.

Australia’s 39 public universities were told this week that the Department of Finance — the administrator of the EIF, which has been sitting dormant for three years — had made it clear “legislation would need to be amended for the government to remove the uncommitted balance of EIF and transfer this money to a different purpose”.

The advice represents yet another hurdle for Malcolm Turnbull’s agenda. The Senate rejected a bid to transfer the EIF money to the Asset Recyling Fund in the previous parliament.

Universities Australia, which had told its member institutions the transfer of funds could go ahead without legislation, said yesterday money could not be transferred from the fund except for “certain operating expenses” of the Future Fund, which houses the EIF. Labor has declared it will ­oppose the move to transfer the education funds into the NDIS.

The opposition’s research spokesman, Kim Carr, described taking money from the EIF to fund the NDIS as a “false ­dichotomy”.

“The government has $50bn in proposed tax cuts sitting there yet it wants to deprive the country of essential research infrastructure that will drive innovation into the future,” Senator Carr said.

In announcing the plan to re­cycle the EIF to fund the NDIS, the government said the money would be used to reduce the commonwealth’s debt and future borrowing requirements.

Peter Hoj, chairman of the Group of Eight universities, which conduct the vast majority of research in Australia, said the EIF had been “deliberately positioned by government to assist research, something this government claims is at the heart of our economic future”.

“We absolutely agree the NDIS should be funded adequately, but using EIF moneys is not appropriate,” he said.

“Damage research and you damage not only the medical ­advances that come from ­research, but indeed the economy which sustains many of the ­services we wish to have available in the long term.”

The Coalition has long argued Labor did not fully fund its flagship scheme, which was introduced in launch sites in the middle of 2013 and included for the first time in that year’s budget. Labor’s proposed 10-year funding plan included savings that apparently were counted twice — both as being plugged into the NDIS and counting towards a budget surplus that never eventuated.

While Labor hiked the Medicare levy by a half a percentage point to partially fund the NDIS it only quarantined this money, and not other alleged savings that were double-­counted in other areas of the budget, such as its changes to retirement incomes.

The Medicare levy rise will cover less than half of the commonwealth’s NDIS obligations at full rollout in 2019-20. In last year’s budget, the Coalition announced the creation of the special savings fund for the NDIS, which would be used to ringfence money for the $22 billion scheme, with savings from other areas of the budget funnelled into this account to plug a $4.4bn hole the government says Labor left behind. This $4.4bn hole will grow to more than $6bn beyond 2019-20.

The Australian understands money in the NDIS account will reduce the commonwealth’s future borrowing requirements.

Philip Clark, who was chairman of the EIF’s advisory board until January 2015, said the fact the money had been sitting in the Future Fund earning only cash rates was “bad financial management, very wasteful”.

Mr Clark — also the author of two reports into research infrastructure for the government, both of which were released only at the end of last year, 18 months after they had been handed to the minister — rubbished the advice he had been given by various government agencies on the EIF while compiling the reports.

Both his reports, which have been ignored by Education Minister Simon Birmingham, were critical of the government’s approach to funding research infrastructure, describing it as “ad hoc” and lacking in strategic forethought.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the government had not changed its policy on funding the flagship disability insurance scheme. “As previously announced, the government intends to close the Education Investment Fund and Building Australia Fund, which will require legislation,” Senator Cormann said last night. “The uncommitted funds from the EIF and the BAF will be allocated to the NDIS savings fund special account. These are not the only funds that will be added to the NDIS savings fund special ­account.

“The government remains committed to putting the NDIS on a sustainable funding foundation for the future.”

Fuente: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/37bn-hole-in-ndis-funding-after-transfer-of-education-money-fails/news-story/c1245559a618008c53242bc01d520d4c