From where I sit Bill Shorten is a passionate advocate. K Rudd announced the feasibility study into the NDIS (by the Productivity Commission) earlier this week which has to be a good first step. This is quite a radical proposal and won't take place overnight. But let's remain optimistic and support Bill, who has been a breath of fresh air in the sector.

Bravo! You have said it well, Don. People with a disability are regarded as "losers" in this country and their families as "owning their problem". Unless we have been touched by disability, we prefer to look away. Yet Australia can never be a socially inclusive country while these two groups, the disabled and their family carers, remain unprovided for or dependent on charity. Our lucky country must step up to the mark and do what comparable countries undertook some decades ago: the legislated entitlement of their disabled citizens to essential services. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is the means to achieve this and the Rudd government is to be congratulated on announcing the first step towards this groundbreaking measure.

I once knew a woman who told me she was raped when she was seventeen by her boyfriend.

"Please don't rape me." she had said to him.

"I have to" said the boyfriend "because you won't consent."

That is the author's logic: "because I would like other people to pay for something that I know they don't want to pay for, therefore force is justified".

A national disability insurance scheme is a great idea, but the author has not given any reason why it should be government-funded. However if the reason is that the people of Australia don't want to pay for it voluntarily, then obviously the government is not more representative of the people, than the people.