Australia news and politics live: Treasurer Jim Chalmers reveals 10 most important productivity reform areas
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Key Events
Ruston slams Butler’s NDIS announcement: ‘Wasn’t a lot of detail’
Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston isn’t happy with the lack of detail in Health Minister Mark Butler’s recent NDIS announcement, which included removing kids with autism from the system and instead moved into a new initiative.
Ms Ruston has emphasised that the Coalition wants to ensure children who need foundational support receive the help they require.
However, she criticized Mr Butler’s announcement for lacking sufficient detail, leaving parents of children with mild to moderate developmental delays uncertain about what to expect.
“Whilst there was a lot of headline in yesterday, there wasn’t a lot of detail about how this will impact parents going forward, parents with children with mild to moderate developmental challenges,” Ms Ruston told ABC Radio National on Thursday morning.
“I think the thing that concerns me most is the lack of detail and the impact that’s likely to have on many parents, many families this morning,” she added.
Butler: Community wants NDIS reform
Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler has been asked about the timeframe for fixing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) before its social licence runs out.
It comes as yesterday, Mr Butler announced the government would invest $2 billion in “Thriving Kids,” a new initiative outside the NDIS designed to assist children with mild to moderate developmental delays and autism. This move aims to remove children with less severe disabilities from the NDIS to help control the scheme’s rapidly increasing costs.
Mr Butler emphasised the need for reform to maintain public support, saying, “I think what the community is saying is they want a sense from their government that we get the need to make change. They overwhelmingly think that this is a scheme they should be proud of that has transformed the lives of people with disabilities,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio National.
“But they’re concerned it’s costing too much and has too many inefficiencies and too many dodgy providers,” he says.’
Lehrmann returns to court to clear name after damning rape finding
Bruce Lehrmann will return to a Sydney court on Thursday as his lawyer attempts to argue that he was “surprised” by the findings made against him in his damaging defamation suit loss to Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson.
Lehrmann has appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court following his multimillion dollar loss to Ten and Ms Wilkinson last year.
Justice Michael Lee found that Lehrmann – on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities – had raped his colleague Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House in 2019.
Lehrmann sued over Ms Wilkinson’s interview with Ms Higgins on The Project but Justice Lee made damning findings against him and he was subsequently ordered to pay $2m in Ten’s legal costs.
Israeli army says Gaza City takeover ‘has begun’
Israel’s military has announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City and called up tens of thousands of reservists while the Government considered a new ceasefire proposal to pause nearly two years of war.
“We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Brigadier General Effie Defrin, Israel’s military spokesman, told reporters.
The IDF confirmed it would call up 60,000 reservists as part of the preparations for the “next phase of Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, the ground offensive that it launched in May that has seen it take control of 75 per cent of Gaza.
Tax reform on the table as summit eyes negative gearing
An overhaul of how Australians could be taxed will be put in the spotlight as a productivity roundtable draws to a close.
The third and final day of the federal government’s economic reform summit in Canberra will focus on tax reform and budget sustainability on Thursday.
The government went into the federal election in May promising not to make changes to negative gearing and the capital gains benefit, but forum attendees are still expected to make the case for the reforms.
Unions are set to argue for a full suite of tax measures including limiting negative gearing to one investment property, with existing laws allowed to stay in place for the next five years.
A minimum tax rate of 25 per cent for people earning more than $1 million per year has been pitched by union attendees.
