Bill Shorten has given credence to speculation that Anthony Albanese is considering an early election by randomly deciding that sex work, sex toys, and tarot card reading should not be included in the NDIS.
How did these things end up part of the scam – I mean scheme – in the first place? Their inclusion was formalised in 2020 following a Federal Court ruling despite the public giving the whole thing an almighty side-eye.
‘The rules have been a bit loose at the margins…’ Shorten admitted. ‘Let’s tell the truth. I find that telling the truth on these matters is the best.’
How loose? $29.3 billion loose. Soon to be $33 billion, if projections are accurate.
Listen, people are happy to pay for wheelchairs, critical medication, and a bloke to mow the lawn of a bed-bound pensioner.
Telling the truth, as Shorten suggests, would mean confessing to the unbelievable waste of public money thrown at the NDIS which has ensured that people who need help are competing with hundreds of thousands of people who are – what’s that Australian phrase? – taking the piss.
We are in a position where the government is taxing people so harshly, while making the living conditions of Australia so bad and expensive, that it is impacting the health of those who will never have access to the NDIS. Being poor is not a disability, but it is certainly a life-altering condition.
The NDIS seems to be unaware the public are of the mind to shut the whole thing down. They have raged and ranted about the banning of sex work. From the ABC:
The decision to exclude sex work has prompted deep concern from the disability sector, who warn it will rob participants of free choice, and could be a sign of a broader tightening on what participants can access.
‘Changing this law would mean you’re now actually having the government choose whether some people with a disability are having sex,’ said the People with Disability Australia president.
Well, no, that’s not what’s being said at all. The government is not standing at the bedroom door. Shorten is saying that the public won’t be paying for sex. It’s a very different conversation.
‘It’s a bit of a double standard, really, the federal government is totally happy to provide public funds for sex-based supports such as Viagra and other types of medications that are available on prescription – as they should be – and there is a growing acceptance about the need to have open and honest conversations about sex and sexuality throughout the community,’ said Greens Senator Steele-John.
Who is going to give the Steele-John the ‘birds and the bees’ chat, explaining that Viagra isn’t the same as turning the NDIS into the Red Light district…? Although perhaps the Senator has a point, and people should pay for their own Viagra too.
The latest is that Bill Shorten vows to scrap sex work, sex toys, and tarot card readings on NDIS
What were these people doing before? pic.twitter.com/xPwDBJqdVN
— Clown Down Under ? (@clowndownunder) July 7, 2024
For too long, Australians have averted their eyes from the health system, considering it petty or mean to call out obvious rorts, scandals, and scams conducted with the full approval of the Labor Party. In 2024, there is no fat left in the economy and very little patience.
Support under the NDIS includes: daily personal activities; transport to community, social, economic, and daily life activities; workplace help; therapeutic supports including behaviour support; and help with household tasks to allow the person to maintain their home environment etc
There are a lot of exhausted families living on the edge who would love free transportation to social events or help with household tasks who instead have to open their wallets and watch a sizeable chunk of their pay being sent off into the abyss of the ‘generous’ Treasury. Socially conscious lefties are only generous because it is not their money and they are being paid handsomely for their virtue. Meaning ordinary people are wrongly painted as mean because they want to put food on the table for their kids.
Too many things are being gifted by the taxpayer to an increasingly large group of government favourites that never ever include the working class. They work their arses off. Pay for everything themselves. And get nothing. Not even footpaths, for the most part. There is a whole class of Australians living a misery every day because of the mistakes of wasteful politicians. This is what corruption looks like.
These disaffected people want to know why there are activists capable attending rallies who are unable to do their dishes without a paid helper, and others who use public money for sexual services while there are elderly people shivering through winter, too broke to turn on a heater.
As a taxpayer, I want to pay for the heater – not the sex work.
Shorten is not a stupid man, well, not when it comes to preparing an election campaign.
There is no doubt that this topic polled badly in focus groups and that the NDIS, in general, is a sitting duck for even the most lacklustre of conservative campaigns. Labor doesn’t have a defence for the NDIS, or a suitable explanation for its bulging wastage.
If Albanese is considering an early election, it’s because the economic storm brewing on the back of too much socialism is headed for Canberra. Wind turbines are infuriating previously safe Labor seats in a situation that has been made worse by the strong-arm of the state overriding the ability of communities to challenge projects in court. Instead of being angry, voters feel helpless. People have nowhere to live and if they can find a home, they can’t afford it. Those with homes are about to lose them as interest rates climb. Higher education is an expensive way to trap the next generation in a cult so reckless that they believe the world will end if they don’t convert to communism. Then there is the simmering resentment from locals that Australia’s cities have become foreign places where there is barely a shared language let alone a shared culture. We are multicultural to the point of having no culture.
All these things are getting worse.
Bill Shorten is tidying up his nest just in case the Labor gods open his cage door and set him loose upon the leadership.
Until then, he can confidently print on his election banners: ‘Bill Shorten: if you want sex, pay for it yourself.’