During the to-ing and fro-ing over the 0.5% income tax levy for the NDIS,
I made a comment on a well known news site. I thought nothing of it until
I received an email confirmation that the comment was published.

I decided to check the well known news site for my comment. I couldn’t find it.
What I did come across was a trail of vitriol that rivals Twitter in melt down.

Nearly all of the comments about the NDIS were unfailingly negative. Most people wrote that it wasn’t about the money, but they were paying for asylum seekers, the NBN (which funds itself) and the carbon tax!

One person posted that he wasn’t going to pay for the disabled and that he was voting Liberal. Another suggested life Insurance for the disabled not knowing that they would be ineligible. Another troll on twitter said the disabled should look after themselves not take his money.

Even Andrew Bolt criticised the levy in similar terms in his column. Similar comments emanated from the CEO of Myer, which were apologetically withdrawn.

Nearly none of these commentators mentioned the NDIS by name!! Nor was it clear whether they were for it or against it (even Andrew Bolt was unclear)!!! The disabled were mentioned barely at all!!

To me it was an exercise in public selfishness : people stating openly that they would not pay a pittance to help those less fortunate than themselves. Had these people looked into the NDIS further they would have found it was an initiative of the Productivity Commission and will actually be economically beneficial.

Then yesterday Tony Abbott changed his mind. He said he would support the levy conditionally. However, Joe Hockey late yesterday had still not come on board and was still expressing misgivings.

Despite the ongoing Opposition confusion, they did raise a good question. They asked how the rest of the NDIS would be funded. Of course the Budget will reveal that information! Presumably that will be greeted by even more howls of protest from the previous complainants again with little or no mention of the disabled.

So rather than rail at these selfish people and embrace their negativity, perhaps another suggestion is in order.
Perhaps we should look at a different way of funding the NDIS!

As a former charity founder (Volunteer Funders), I had a small idea. The idea didn’t work for me but was expanded by another (Volunteer Forever). The idea was crowdfunding! Perhaps the NDIS could be crowdfunded much like Kickstarter or Pozible! Perhaps optimistically, it could fund itself! Why not?

Who would benefit?

The disabled, their carers, their families, their service providers and the economy!

Those who don’t want to pay the tax levy who would spend it at Myer or enjoy that extra coffee guilt free!

Related articles

• Myer apologises for NDIS remarks after social media backlash (mumbrella.com.au)
• The strange politics, and sensible economics, of the NDIS levy (crikey.com.au)
• Medicare levy increased to fund NDIS (abc.net.au)
• Why fund NDIS? Because one day you might need it (abc.net.au)
• Charities fear NDIS levy could lead to ‘donor fatigue’ (abc.net.au)