Dutton asked if Aukus submarines should be paid for by cuts to NDIS – video

Peter Dutton suggests the Coalition will offer bipartisan support for cuts to the national disability insurance scheme [NDIS] to keep it ‘sustainable’ and pay for the Aukus nuclear submarine acquisition. ‘The NDIS is an incredibly important program’, Dutton says. ‘We supported it in opposition, in government, and it must continue but it must be sustainable’. The Aukus plan to buy up to five Virginia class submarines before working jointly on a next-generation submarine with the UK is expected to cost hundreds of billions over several decades. Dutton was not as supportive of changes to the proposed stage-three tax cuts. ‘The government went to the last election with a commitment for the tax cuts and they knew about Aukus’, Dutton says. ‘If they’re going to walk away from the tax cuts, then they should be very clear about that and we’ll no doubt find that out in the budget’.