Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

What I can confirm is that this government is going to make sure that the NDIS is fully funded. That's what this government is going to do. This is what the shadow Treasurer said when the former government increased the Medicare levy as a way of part funding the NDIS:

We took it to the Productivity Commission. They gave a report on how it should be done. We did have to … pay for it, increase the Medicare levy. That's something that was very controversial when we did it but I think the right thing to do because all Australians would recognise that as a decent, compassionate nation, it is the right thing to do now. It is overdue.

If it was the right thing to do then, then it's the right thing to do now.

This is the shadow Treasurer who has turned his back on everything he used to believe. He has completely wilted in the face of the pressure from the Labor Left. His own leader has forced him to turn his back on his previous positions. If he can't stand up to the Leader of the Opposition or the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, what good is he? This is a man who used to believe something. He has been completely brought to the position of recanting humiliation as the shadow Treasurer. That's why he can't be trusted with the nation's finances. Whatever he used to believe doesn't matter, because he hasn't got the ticker to stand up to this Leader of the Opposition, that deputy leader and whatever other pretender on that side there is to the leadership of the Labor Party. He cannot be trusted to hold a position and hold to his convictions and his beliefs on the economy.

We support fully funding the NDIS. We support those people and families in Australia who are relying on this scheme. It was Julia Gillard who said, 'Everybody benefits; everybody puts in.' The Labor Party have turned their back on Julia Gillard, on Bob Hawke and on Paul Keating. They don't know who they are or where they are going. When you believe in nothing no-one will believe in you.

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