Scott Morrison's plan to utilise Australia's "big hearts" to fund the NDIS is under threat, with both Labor and the Greens raising concerns over the funding plan.
The Treasurer said it was time to put politics aside and ensure the National Disability Insurance Scheme was fully funded.
It was a shift to the middle for the government, which had previously linked funding the $22 billion scheme to its doomed Omnibus bill, ditching the threats and moving to an increase of the Medicare Levy to raise $8 billion over four years, spreading the cost across all working Australians.
On Wednesday, Mr Morrison made it personal, telling the story of his brother-in-law Gary Warren, a fireman who was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis in 1999.
"People, he's told me, are enormously generous, not just happy to help, but keen to help," Mr Morrison told the National Press Club, where Mr Warren was in the audience.
"He said, it's not flash being disabled, it's not flash. But if there's anything good about it, he said, it's that you're disabled in Australia. That's an incredibly generous statement about the big heart of Australians. He and I both know they have big hearts. I don't know a finer man than Gary Warren.
"So last night I was very proud to declare that as a Treasurer in the Turnbull Government, we would fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. That's what this is about. That story."
The funding of the NDIS has been finalised. Now the journey of opening up community, education & employment begins for many PWD & families.??? Kurt Fearnley (@kurtfearnley) May 10, 2017
Five-time paralympian Kurt Fearnley, who earlier this year sparked debate when he accused the government of using the NDIS as a "political football" described the budget measure as "bloody fantastic".
"I am shocked and amazed and also excited that for the first time in a few years this won't be brought up as a political thing," he said.
"It's funded.
"My thoughts are we have solved a problem - it needed to be funded and if Australians can look at this levy increase and see the benefits to our community - honestly, it is a relief - now we can get on to bigger problems we still have to address, like engaging people with disabilities into the workforce, engaging in education, engaging them in the tourism industry. But this, it's done. And that is amazing."
But Labor has not committed to supporting the increase in the Medicare Levy from 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent to fill what the Coalition has referred to as a funding gap in the scheme.
The Opposition maintains the 2013-14 budget it handed down following the Gillard government's creation of the scheme, fully funded the NDIS, by increasing the Medicare Levy itself and "a number of savings measures".
But a change in government, and a blow-out in the scheme's cost had left a hole.
Professor Hal Kendig at the ANU centre for Research for Aging, Health and Well-being said neither previous governments had fully funded the scheme, despite their ambitions.
He said the announcement from the Treasurer was a concrete funding road map for the scheme, which had been lacking.
"It was most encouraging that the Coalition government has set funding of the NDIS as a priority for the budget, after the years in which the high aspirations were never matched with funding from either the previous Labor government or the current coalition government," Professor Kendig said.
"The encouraging further development here, is that the Treasurer has committed the government to the Medicare Levy increase, which is a viable way ahead for covering many of the NDIS costs.
"How it would all play out in terms of costs and income is yet to be seen, but we see a viable way ahead now - it doesn't depend on hypothetical savings that are unlikely to ever be achieved."
But the plan hasn't won outright political support. While Labor and the Greens weigh up whether they support the blanket levy increase, Pauline Hanson has called for those eligible for the NDIS to be "re-invesitigated".
"People are ripping us off left, right and centre and they must prove they are eligible, because the taxpayers have had a gutful," Senator Hanson told Sky.
