Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation) Share this | Hansard source

We know the Leader of the Opposition's idea of fairness is to sell out workers on penalty rates while he claims, to their faces, that he will look after them. We know that in the case of Cleanevent it took the royal commission to uncover the deal, which was then terminated in 2015 on the application of employees because, in the words of the lawyer from the AWU:

… the only purpose that it—

that is, the Cleanevent agreement—

is currently serving is to deny employees, particularly casual employees, access to penalty rates.

The Leader of the Opposition claims that he believes in and stands up for fairness. Just ask the workers at Chiquita Mushrooms about the Leader of the Opposition's idea of fairness. He saved Chiquita Mushrooms millions from the abolition of overtime rates, amongst other savings. We know that the moral compass of the Labor Party has gone a long way south in recent years.

Turning to the coalition's policy and view of fairness, we do want to give everyone a fair go. That means fully funded programs for our kids at schools and universities. It means fully funded programs for the disabled. It means genuine programs to make housing affordable. We know that, when the Labor Party talks about fully funded programs, it is vapourware. If I turn for a moment to the NDIS, we have said that the Turnbull government will guarantee the NDIS is fully funded by legislating a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy. That will provide certainty for NDIS participants. We know that. In contrast, despite a lot of promises, we know the previous Labor government failed to fully fund the NDIS, leaving a funding gap in 2019-20 of $4 billion—a gap which grows each and every year and, in fact, increases to north of $7 billion.

Labor like the claim—and I am sure the shadow finance minister would claim this—that they clearly identified enough other long-term savings to pay for the NDIS. But, when you look at the actual budget papers, they did not link any savings to the NDIS funding. In fact, it was only in a glossy in the 2013-14 budget that we find any funding commitments to the NDIS. I have the glossy here. It looks very impressive; it is called DisabilityCare Australia. In it, under 'Meeting the costs of DisabilityCare Australia', there is a category which is basically the biggest part of the funding for the NDIS, and it is called 'Other long-term savings'. It is a very nice blue colour. It turns out that, in Senate estimates, Treasury officials were asked whether those measures could be listed in detail. The Treasury officials' answer was, 'The short answer is no.' It was totally unfunded, but to 'Other long-term savings' were hitched the hopes and dreams of disabled people across Australia. Many of the other savings that Labor supposedly allocated to the NDIS had actually been announced long before and assigned to other purposes, without any mention of the NDIS whatsoever. I have bad news for those opposite about budgets. You can only spend your money once—not two times, three times or four times. Unfortunately, disabled people across Australia had their money—the money that was supposed to be spent on the scheme to which they had hitched their hopes and dreams—spent many times over by the Labor Party.

In contrast, our additional increase to the Medicare levy will apply from 1 July 2019 and will raise, initially, $3.6 billion, and increase from there. Importantly, as a fairness measure, because this is about fairness, low-income earners will continue to be exempt from the Medicare levy and will not be impacted by the increase. Because it is a universal insurance scheme, everyone should pay their fair share and contribute to it through the Medicare levy. Australians who can afford to will pay for this scheme. (Time expired)

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