Maybe time for Julia to give Tony a call

IF Julia Gillard wants to deliver a National Disability Insurance Scheme, she should end the haggling with state premiers and reach for a lifeline by phoning a friend: Tony Abbott.

In letters between the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, first revealed in The Australian last month, Mr Abbott supported an NDIS "as recommended by the Productivity Commission", which means it's funded by the commonwealth at a cost of $6.5 billion annually.

If Gillard is looking for bipartisanship, she should cut the premiers loose and make a deal with Abbott. This is what she should have done in the lead-up to COAG to encourage the states to support "launch sites".

But, as reported in The Australian today, the premiers raised the idea of a new levy with Gillard and were rebuffed.

If she had adopted a levy-based funding mechanism, it is likely she would have won the support of conservative state and federal leaders for a full NDIS.

While the states were recalcitrant in not providing a small amount of money for trials, they are concerned about long-term funding, as they already spend $7.1bn on disability services each year.

An NDIS is still achievable if Gillard agrees to fully fund it.

The premiers are likely to support a levy and Abbott would have little choice but to agree, given his support for a federally funded NDIS.

Initiating a national levy would guarantee an NDIS and provide Gillard with a desperately needed circuit-breaker by allowing her to claim credit for a bipartisan reform triumph.

But rather than see the opportunity to secure a full NDIS she insisted on getting from the states what she called "relatively small amounts of additional financing" for trials, and lost the chance to secure a historic reform.

With a stubborn Prime Minister snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, an NDIS that would assist 400,000 Australians with disabilities is likely to be implemented by conservative governments.