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As far as Canberra is concerned, this week’s about ‘productivity’. Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood will today address the National Press Club, on Tuesday an Economic Reform Roundtable (formerly billed as a ‘productivity summit’) will begin at Parliament House, and on Friday we will have an announcement of success.

Does that sound cynical? Well, perhaps, but that’s the reality of the politics surrounding the event.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers placed productivity on the agenda, pushed by Wood. Both can see the vital need for real reform to push growth. There was effectively no growth in 2023-24.

Slower productivity growth translates to slower growth in GDP. More critically for disability, calls to cut the NDIS will become louder. Our sector is tied to national outcomes.

Unfortunately, the PC’s desire for a round-table has been skewed by the political process. Instead of the real investigation it wanted, that desire’s been transformed into what’s becoming a stage-managed display. Real initiatives will disappear as the conversation becomes subsumed in macro-economic debates.

Pete Horsley, founder of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance’s Tech Accelerator Remarkable, hit the nail on the head with a LinkedIn post last week.

The point is, in disability care the great leaps won’t come from simply making beds faster. The really big advances come from doing and looking at the old problems in a new way.

When genuine issues become swallowed into the political process, the potential for real outcomes disappears.

Inside the parliamentary triangle, the roundtable is being observed as a surrogate for Chalmer’s political ambitions to replace the PM. It’s not, but this has an effect on Anthony Albanese’s willingness to endorse big outcomes from the process. He will, unconsciously, be applying a brake on the process.

Inevitably, everybody pushes their own objectives. Real solutions become lost in the noise.

The really big story that nobody’s focused on is Friday’s revelation by Phil Coorey in the Financial Review. He revealed the states now want a national scheme to cover Foundational Supports.

While this is a good - even vital - change to the proposed system, progressing this will almost inevitably involve more angst over who pays for funding the scheme, increased argument over equitable standards, and delivery.

This is likely to further set back the introduction of any reform.

Nic Stuart, editor

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