Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the. Will the minister update the House on the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and how the government will ensure that it is fully funded? Are there any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for her question. As the member well knows, by 2020—as the Prime Minister also noted—about 460,000 Australians are estimated to benefit from the NDIS. What every single Australian who can benefit from the NDIS wants to know is very, very simple: can this parliament cooperate to once and for all—

Ms Butler interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith is warned.

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

guarantee absolute certainty of funding beyond 2020? It appears that almost everyone agrees that a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy is the fairest way to provide this certainty. The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations say that this:

… gives peace of mind to people with disability that funding for the scheme is secure…

National Disability Services say:

Paying for the NDIS through the Medicare levy will put funding for the NDIS beyond doubt.

The Disability Advocacy Network say:

It seems to us that people do understand that it's a fair way to do it …

Why do people understand that this is a fair way to do it? First, the NDIS is an insurance scheme for all Australians and all of their families, regardless of what their financial circumstances might be at the time that they require help. Secondly, the Medicare levy ensures that Australians with more pay significantly more of the funding gap, and Australians with less pay significantly less of the funding gap. The top seven per cent would pay about 27 per cent of the funding gap; the bottom 10 per cent of income earners would pay 1.6 per cent of the funding gap. Who else agrees with the disability sector that this is fair? Each and every member on this side of the House agrees that this is fair. It now appears that 75 per cent of the shadow cabinet also agree that this is fair.

If the Leader of the Opposition will not take the advice of his shadow cabinet, maybe he should take his own advice. In 2013, when the Leader of the Opposition was a Labor minister and was advocating that the then opposition leader should agree to Labor's half a per cent increase in the Medicare levy, he said that, if the then Leader of the Opposition does not agree, he:

… needs to look in the face, people whose lives are second class, and say, 'I regard me getting into power is more important than your life.'

We now say to you, Leader of the Opposition: if you do not support this 0.5 per cent increase, you need to look into the faces of people whose lives are second class and you need to say, 'I regard me getting into power as more important than your life.'