The parents of Canberra children with severe disabilities will today be cheering Katy Gallagher for taking a calculated risk on their behalf.
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The ACT Chief Minister joined two other jurisdictions to put up money for the trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The ACT's share of the cost will go down, from 70 to 60 per cent, but the scheme will expand, from 1400 people to as high as 5000.
Asked by The Canberra Times about the risk of a possible blow-out due to the cross-border attraction of the scheme, the Chief Minister said safeguards would be in place against the ''Yass factor''.
The Chief Minister is well-placed to be an advocate for parents of a child with severe disabilities. After university she was a social worker helping children with disabilities and later, an advocate for a support organisation for the intellectually disabled.
At the COAG summit it was no surprise the Labor mates - the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia - stepped up to ensure Julia Gillard did not have a humiliating loss.
The meeting was shaping as yet another ''test'' for a Prime Minister labouring under low poll support.
When she was deputy PM, she excelled at behind-the-doors, hard-nosed negotiations. But when she was elevated to chairwoman of the board, the plot fell apart.
The conservative bloc scored a psychological blow by refusing to sign on.
They swaggered away to tell their jurisdictions that they ''stood'' up to Gillard.
What they weren't so keen to mention was that, for Victoria, the cost was $30 million, not so much to spark a massive flow of federal funds.
And here's the thing - the intense talks during the lunch break of yesterday's meeting between the federal, NSW and Victoria governments, which continue today, could result in the two largest states signing on in the near future.
Even Queensland leader Campbell Newman was keen to say he wanted to opt in and receive the lucrative federal funds, but only later when he could afford his share.
The partial start-up of the scheme is still an advance for the nation and notably for those disabled people who, according to Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, currently have only two showers a week or leave their house several times a year.
