Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question. In fact, I saw the Father of the House correct someone this morning quite tersely when they congratulated him on 44 years in parliament. He said it was only 43½. For the future reference of the absent member for Jagajaga, that is a rounding error—$20 billion worth of imaginary revenue is not a rounding error. The member for Jagajaga has fallen into the pit of making a few rounding errors recently, particularly with respect to the NDIS. In fact, tonight, after this very question time we will be debating the future of the NDIS with a bill into which the government will go with the hard work of savings to ensure that it is fully funded. For the benefit of members opposite, the NDIS will cost the Commonwealth $11.3 billion—$1.1 billion comes from existing Commonwealth funding on disabilities, $1.9 billion from redirecting moneys that would otherwise go to the states and $3.3 billion from the increase in the Medicare levy, leaving an amount close to $5 billion. That is another rounding error, for members opposite, but one that we are going to fix by the hard fiscal work of savings.

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