Another wasted chance for Gillard

SNATCHING defeat from the jaws of victory is hard to do, but Julia Gillard is better at it than most. Her decision to reject a levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme - put forward by the premiers on Tuesday - is yet another poor decision.

Gillard needs a policy outcome that Labor can be proud of. Unfortunately, political timidity converged with policy selfishness, and the disabled are the ones left with a limited trial instead of a funding mechanism that could have allowed the NDIS to be rolled out nationally.

Gillard wasn't prepared to risk being attacked for instituting another tax with a new levy, despite all four conservative premiers backing the idea.

Tony Abbott's attacks have clearly rattled the PM's confidence. And it seems she did not want to share credit for the NDIS, believing that she could score points over conservative state premiers by painting them as heartless for not stumping up funds for trials. But what's the point of trials, especially in limited jurisdictions well below the numbers suggested by the Productivity Commission, if there is no agreement on funding the full operation of the scheme?

As the commission noted, the states can't fund an NDIS; they don't have sufficient revenue streams. Gillard had a chance to show that she could be bold and make federalism work.

Instead she has chosen to go to war with popular premiers, right at a time when her own standing in the polls could hardly be lower.