Federal government agrees to extend GST guarantee

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Commonwealth will pour 10-billion dollars from GST revenue into state and treasury coffers in exchange for them contributing more money towards the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The Prime Minister premiers and chief ministers have also inked a new health deal with the Federal Government picking up a larger share of hospital costs.

Transcript

00:00 Descending on Parliament.

00:04 It's a beautiful morning in Canberra.

00:06 With a packed agenda for the final National Cabinet meeting of the year.

00:10 Obviously the states are interested in looking at what kind of reform the GST and the NDIS will look like into the future

00:17 and everybody's coming to the table in a constructive way.

00:20 The Commonwealth needing an agreement on National Disability Insurance Scheme funding as it battles to rein in its rising costs.

00:29 The NDIS at the moment with its projections of where it was headed was simply not sustainable.

00:37 The NDIS currently growing at 14% a year.

00:41 The government previously committing to limit that to 8% by 2026.

00:46 Announcing a new model for delivering foundational supports such as services for children with developmental delays.

00:53 There may well be additional costs for the states and that will be shared 50/50 between the Commonwealth and the states.

01:02 The Commonwealth also left to pick up the bill for extending the no worse off GST guarantee for another three years

01:10 in return for state and territory support at a cost of $3.5 billion per year.

01:17 Stopping short of demands from states for it to be made permanent.

01:21 Significant but imperfect. This will mean that in three years time there will be another debate.

01:27 I'm comfortable, I'm quite sure there's going to be further negotiations down the track but we're very comfortable with that.

01:32 Today's announcement offering a pathway forward by kicking questions of funding down the road.

01:38 The leaders separately agreeing to an additional $1.2 billion towards Medicare

01:43 and the Commonwealth paying more towards the operation of state hospitals.

01:47 The federal government also agreeing to fund a national firearms register within the next four years.

01:53 years.

01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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