XENOPHON SAYS NO TO OMNIBUS SAVINGS BILL

Senator Nick Xenophon has announced that he and the two other NXT senators won’t vote for the government’s omnibus welfare bill, blocking its chance of passing the Senate. Xenophon says the trade-off involved in the bill, which connected childcare reforms to cuts to welfare, was too harsh. “Pitting battling Australians against Australians needing disability support services is dumb policy and even dumber politics. As a negotiating tactic, this is as subtle as a sledgehammer,” he told The Advertiser.

The government also announced yesterday that $3 billion in net savings created by the bill would be used to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme in its first year of full operation in 2019-20.