Put simply, the scheme, properly implemented, can help define us again as Australians. We want to recommit to fairness and opportunity as part of our national self- belief. An NDIS would ensure people living with disability will have barriers to participate in the workplace removed and gain opportunities for social participation. More people with disability and their carers working is just one of the benefits — the scheme would also create a substantial economic pay-off for individuals and for Australia as a whole. An NDIS is the idea both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbot need. It is the big idea we all need. Everyone bemoans their absence, but ideas are a tough sell. Ideas, even good ones, require strong leadership. Leaders need to move beyond simplistic slogans to explain the need for reform and how initiatives can solve the challenges confronting the nation. The debate around the carbon tax is a good example of how difficult it can be to drive a large and complex policy reform. Everything about climate change is contested and both Gillard and Abbott are under pressure to debunk one another's policy as much as sell their own. This adds to public cynicism about the policy, the politics and the leaders.

In stark contrast to the carbon tax debate, there is considerable agreement in the community about the National Disability Insurance Scheme as a solution. In the case of the NDIS, the major players agree on a number of important things: The disability support system is broken and as a result people with a disability and their families are not getting the vital equipment, therapy and support they so desperately need. Something, therefore, needs to be done. Reform is essential.

The NDIS is by far the favourite solution of most MPs. This in itself is remarkable. But you are not likely to have heard too much about it – furious agreement does not make the front pages in the same way as the tit-for-tat sloganeering that passes for policy reform these days. Apart from hampering the selling of ideas, this lack of media attention also means that many Australians have no idea of the full extent of the daily challenges facing people living with disability. These people and their families are among the most disadvantaged in the nation. People with a disability are less likely to complete their formal education, less likely to be employed, more likely to be poor and in bad health. On top of this, people with a disability and their families have to also fight to obtain the support and services they so desperately need. The problem is simple – there just isn't enough to go around and as a result many people are left to struggle alone. The rates of financial, emotional and physical stress are disturbingly high. Since the mid-1970s, successive Commonwealth governments have ignored the escalating problem and balked at the political complexity of managing the changes required. And without change the situation will get much worse. Projections show that over the next 70 years, the growth in people with a severe disability will be between two and three times population growth as a whole. At the same time, the number of people willing and able to provide unpaid care is expected to decline markedly. The difference between the two must be met by government. If current growth continues, spending on disability services alone will need to double in the next 14 years.

If as a nation we do nothing, we condemn tens of thousands of Australians with a disability to poverty, missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential. And the nation will miss out on the productive potential of people with a disability and their families. Disability will ultimately cost the community far more as other systems such as health, mental health, housing, welfare and the criminal and juvenile justice services bear the brunt of a leaderless, short-sighted approach. The NDIS will give every single Australian the peace of mind of knowing that if they or someone they love acquires a disability their lifelong support needs will be taken care of. The NDIS is the answer. It is the big idea the federal government needs to unite national economic objectives with traditional Labor aspirations of social justice, real full employment and progressive public policy. The scheme would give the Prime Minister a badly needed broadening out of her policy and personal agenda. The NDIS emphasis on individual choice and opportunity also fits comfortably within Liberal Party policy tradition, while guaranteeing equal access to services for the regions is a no-brainer for the National Party. The NDIS is also an answer to some of the Coalition's political problems. It gives Tony Abbott a choice — he can offer bipartisan support for the NDIS and dispel his undeserved image as an ideological conservative on social justice issues and his current, perhaps more understandable, reputation as a negative political wet blanket. Or he can break consensus, oppose the scheme and lose the moral authority he needs to complete his claim for the national leadership.

This Labor government under Kevin Rudd had the foresight to start the process of reform. The government asked the Productivity Commission to conduct an inquiry into how better to support Australians with a disability and their families. After more than 12 months, numerous public hearings and more than 1000 submissions (more than any other inquiry in the Commission's history) the Commission has handed its final report to the government. We now wait to see how they will respond. The Gillard government should have the courage of its convictions, take the final step and implement the recommendations. The opposition should take a share of this national leadership opportunity and support them. People living with disability, their families and indeed the entire nation deserve nothing less. John Della Bosca was long-serving NSW Labor minister. He is national campaign director of Every Australian Counts. Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU