Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition is supporting the Tax Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2009. This is a housekeeping bill. For those in the public gallery, this is one of those bills that are presented every year and which both sides of the House support. When there is legislation that the opposition does not support it always gets an airing but this is a housekeeping bill that is required to come forward to the House every year.

The bill ensures that the low-income threshold for the Medicare levy in particular is indexed to the consumer price index. That ensures that the threshold for those who do not pay the Medicare levy because they are low-income earners is increased in line with inflation. Because this is a tax bill it is required to come into the House every year. It has done so in the past and every year these thresholds have been increased as a result of increases in the CPI. I think, although I stand to be corrected, that there was one exception to that in the late nineties when the consumer price index was negative—that is, it did not increase during that year.

The bill also increases the low-income threshold for the Medicare levy surcharge. How that works, as my colleague Parliamentary Secretary Byrne knows, is that a high-income earner who does not have private insurance is required to pay the Medicare levy surcharge. In a couple or family situation if the partner earns below the low-income Medicare levy surcharge amount, which is identical to the other threshold I mentioned—the Medicare levy low-income threshold—that partner is not required to pay the surcharge. So, this is increased in line with inflation. Of course, there are a range of thresholds when you come to consider family circumstances—the number of children and the rest—and all of those are increased in line with the CPI in this bill.

As I said at the outset, this is a housekeeping bill. It is one that both sides of this House support, as a matter of good public policy, and it has occurred since the introduction of Medicare back in the 1980s and the introduction of the Medicare levy surcharge itself in the 1990s. On behalf of the opposition I commend the bill to the House.

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