Australian capital to roll out full disability scheme

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government has reached agreement with the commonwealth government on Friday to fully roll out the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in ACT. The NDIS will provide more than 5,000 people in the ACT with significant or profound disability the guarantee that they will have choice and control over the care and support they receive over their lifetimes. Under the agreement, the ACT government will provide about 167 million Australian dollars (172 million U.S. dollars) by 2019-20 to the cost of care and support for people with disability in the ACT through the NDIS, now known as DisabilityCare Australia. This is consistent with the bench set by the full scheme agreement reached between the Commonwealth and New South Wales in December 2012. By 2019-20, the Commonwealth government will contribute around 175 million Australian dollars to the scheme for ACT residents. This will cover around 51 percent of the scheme cost. In addition, the Commonwealth will cover the full cost of the people who turn 65 and choose to remain in the scheme. The government also pledged to launch the DisabilityCare Australia from July 2014 and progressively roll out the scheme for all eligible ACT residents by July 2016. South Australia and the Commonwealth signed their deal on Thursday for a full roll-out from 2018-19 with a combined funding of 1.5 billion Australian dollars. The Northern Territory has agreed from 2014 to host a launch site in the Barkly region, including Tennant Creek, covering about 100 people, to test remote region applications. Queensland and Western Australia are now the only states without a launch site for the disability scheme. The National Disability Insurance Scheme, passed by the Commonwealth Parliament in March, is one of the major policies that the Labor government has been pushing with an aim to attract more votes in the upcoming federal election on September 14.