Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Medicare Levy Amendment (National Disability Insurance Scheme Funding) Bill 2017. Can I say to start with, in response to the previous speaker's conclusion just then, that it is actually not at all clear that Labor has a plan to fund the NDIS? They've changed their minds on their plans for how they might pay for it in the future, not two but I think three times now, by my count. They've crab walked away from every position that they've previously held when it comes to the way that they're going to fund it.

The NDIS is supposed to be a policy that enjoys bipartisan support, and it has done since its inception. This bill finds the way to fully pay, finally, for the NDIS. I guess it's an unfortunate sign of the times that more and more legislation is opposed these days by the opposition on the basis of political point scoring rather than for real policy or substantive reasons. Indeed, we can probably now add the NDIS to a list that, sadly, grows longer every month of commitments that Labor once made about their values and their promises before the election and how they actually vote post the election in this parliament.

The previous speaker talked a little about tax cuts, actually. That used to be a strong Labor belief—that tax cuts led to more jobs, more investment and prosperity. When this government, in this parliament, acted to reduce corporate taxes for small business, and when we voted to reduce taxes for middle-income earners in Australia, the Labor Party said that they aspired to cutting taxes and then they voted against doing so. They changed their minds. Labor opposed it; the coalition did it. We passed small business tax cuts for Australia, and now jobs are being created, exactly as was predicted both by us and by them—when they used to support it.

Similarly, Labor also used to talk a lot about David Gonski and school funding reforms. They used to say that they aspired to increase funding and to move to a system that treated all students the same, on the basis of need. Then the coalition found a way to finally do that in our budget and Labor changed their minds and voted against it. Labor used to talk about finding a bipartisan, expert-led approach when it came to energy policy and the challenges that confront our nation. Recently, that's exactly what this government announced with its support for the National Energy Guarantee, as recommended by the experts on the Energy Security Board, and now it seems Labor will walk away from their previously stated beliefs in that space too. It's a pattern of conduct from Labor that I genuinely hope has caught the attention of Australian families who are interested—indeed, invested—in the success of the NDIS. It used to be a Labor policy to find the money for the NDIS through a policy just like this, an increase in the Medicare levy, and, now that this government announced that in the budget earlier this year, it seems Labor are set to oppose it. They'll vote against giving the NDIS the funding security that they say it deserves.

I remember that time—I think it was a few months ago now—when a very strong delegation of disability advocates came down to Canberra to try to persuade the Labor Party to fully fund the NDIS in exactly this way. The former Labor MP John Della Bosca, from Every Australian Counts, said:

… the increase to the Medicare levy must happen, in order to secure a consistent, sustainable funding stream for the NDIS. That's what we're telling everybody. That's what we'll keep telling everybody until we get a result.

That quote was from exactly the same week that the Productivity Commission released its interim report into its inquiry into the NDIS. That interim report considered whether the rollout of the NDIS was on track and within budget, and indeed the Productivity Commission said, yes, it's on track; it's within budget. And that was, sadly, the week that the Labor Party went completely off track when it came to funding the NDIS. That was the week when it became apparent that Labor had changed their minds and would no longer support that increase in the Medicare levy to fund the NDIS, which was their former position. Mind you, they probably will still ultimately increase the Medicare levy if they ever take office. It just seems that they won't use the funds that they raise through doing that to pay for the NDIS. Chances are they'll fritter it away on something else.

I want to give a very real example from Brisbane about what's at stake, what we are really talking about here, and why this bill matters. In Brisbane, in my electorate, on a quite unassuming street in the beautiful suburb of Wooloowin, there's this unassuming house which you probably wouldn't even notice if you were just driving past it. It's a shared house run by the charity Youngcare, and I was pleased to hear a previous speaker mention them too because they do fantastic work across the Brisbane community in places just like that Wooloowin house. They're a charity that for many, many years has struggled as a small fundraiser to find the funds and build appropriate accommodation for young people with disabilities who have been stuck in the aged-care system in the absence of anything else being available. In 2005, 12 years ago, four mates vowed to change that considerable gap in care provision for young people with high-care needs. They did so when they saw that, at the age of just 33, Shevaune Conry, who has multiple sclerosis, ending up living in aged care. Now Youngcare is at the forefront of the NDIS and has been ensuring that its model of operations as well as its clients are ready for the rollout.

Australia, you see, has a severe shortage of appropriate housing for people with high-care needs, right across the country. At present, Youngcare estimate that there may be 700,000 people living in or at risk of entering aged care because of their disability. It's startling in some senses to think that, in a relatively wealthy country like Australia, a young disabled person's best chance of support and care is in an aged-care facility. For the young people currently living in aged care, the statistics are startling. Forty-four per cent of them, sadly, will receive a visit from friends less than once a year, about one-third of them will never participate in community based activities such as shopping, about one in five of them will go outside of that home less than once a month, and about one-quarter of them are the parents of school-aged children. Almost half are in partnered relationships.

And that's exactly what Shevaune and thousands like her faced. Youngcare was the only place that could provide for her needs 24/7. With the purpose to create brighter futures for young people with high care needs, Youngcare was born and delivered that. Since then, Youngcare and many great organisations like it from right across Australia have provided the care and the dignity that young people deserve.

Recently, I went back to visit Youngcare's Wooloowin share house to catch up with some of the housemates there. I took along this time the Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter, and I was able to show the minister some of the great facilities that the share house provides to the housemates, all of them with disabilities. I caught up again with Nick, one of the housemates there. He showed the minister around his room. Although Nick's confined to a wheelchair, he can control his entire room, from the television to the lights to the bed, as well as all of his communication equipment, all from his wheelchair's computer. Texting family and friends is something that we can often take for granted, but, for Nick, that ability to regularly message his family and friends without having to rely on other people doing it for him was an exciting milestone.

Nick didn't always have his freedom, nor has he always been able to enjoy the facilities at Youngcare. Just like Shevaune, who I spoke about, Nick was shipped around different facilities, including aged care. The common denominator, I suppose, of all of those experiences was that none of them were suited to Nick's needs.

By fully funding the NDIS through this bill, we're giving people like Nick the care that they need and that they deserve. Just as importantly, the NDIS gives power to these clients, which means we're giving them the dignity and the independence that they genuinely deserve. This legislation will fully fund our contribution to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, giving Australians with permanent and significant disability and their families and carers certainty that this sort of service will be there for them into the future.

The scheme aims to transform the lives of almost half a million people around Australia who are living with disability, and the lives of their families. To help fund that scheme, this government is asking Australians to contribute, with the Medicare levy to be increased by half a percentage point, from two to 2.5 per cent of taxable income—but not now, not this year and not next year. We're talking about 2019, when the full scheme rolls out and the full costs are finally incurred by governments participating in the scheme. It will mean that one-fifth of the revenue raised by the Medicare levy into the future, along with any other underspends in the NDIS system, will be directed to the NDIS Savings Fund.

The previous speaker said, 'Low-income earners will pay for this.' But low-income earners will continue to receive relief from the Medicare levy through the low-income thresholds for singles, families, seniors and pensioners. The current exemptions from the Medicare levy will remain in place. Don't get me wrong; good policy should try to spread the costs of a scheme like this as thinly as possible across society, because that's how insurance works. Ask yourself what happens when you set up an insurance scheme that relies much too heavily on just a few contributors. Potentially, in a policy sense, you set that scheme up facing some real risks, possibly setting it up to fail.

Commonwealth expenditure on the NDIS for 2017-18, the financial year we're in, is $5.3 billion. But that's projected to reach $10.8 billion when the NDIS reaches full scheme in 2019-20. As we all know, a scheme doesn't simply pay for itself. And clearly you can't take Labor at their word when they say they might fund it one way, and then they change their minds so many times and say, 'No, no, we're going to fund it this way instead,' and then, 'We're going to fund it this way instead.' When Labor left office, when they were voted out in 2013, they left a $55.7 billion funding shortfall for the NDIS. Labor can try to argue about that shortfall, as they repeatedly do in this place, but they know that it's true. Consistent with the usual budget practices in this place, they only ever really had to account for the money in their budget for the four forward years. They didn't have to explain where the money was coming from in the out years beyond the four-year forward estimates, when the true costs of this scheme would become apparent. That's a usual Labor trick. They do it all the time. They did it on schools funding and all sorts of things. It's just, I suppose, one more thing that this government had to fix up upon assuming office.

One can't help but reflect that we wouldn't be in this position if the proper planning had really been put in place when this scheme was designed. On 1 May 2013 the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said:

Now I do want to be clear, the amount raised from the additional Medicare levy will not fund the full cost of DisabilityCare when it's in full operation.

The Government will need to make savings for that full cost and there will be no free ride for States and Territories. They will need to step up too.

But, in reality, none of those measures were implemented and now this government is stepping in to ensure the longevity of this insurance scheme. This is a big moment for all of the Australian families who are interested in making sure that the NDIS is funded and really works. It will be a revealing moment when the Labor side of politics choose to play politics and they crab-walk away from their previous policy position yet again. It is a revealing moment when the coalition assumes responsibility and does what is necessary to make Australia a better place. Now is the time to finally rectify the funding shortfall for the sake of Youngcare, for their many clients like Nick and Shevaune and for the sake of all the families who wish there was one more Wooloowin House. I commend this bill to the House and I urge the opposition to support it as well.

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