Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House the right choices the government is making to guarantee essential services? And, Treasurer, how is the government acting to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman for his question, and I appreciated joining the member for Bowman when we went to see Star Community Transport in Cleveland last week. They are one of the many agencies preparing to support the full implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. But they know, as we know, that there is a $55.7 billion black hole that needs to be filled to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

By their own admission, as I told the House yesterday, the original increase of 0.5 per cent in the Medicare level is insufficient to fully fund the scheme. And, as I noted yesterday, you cannot spend money twice. You cannot spend savings twice, as the Labor Party said they could, and that is why there is a funding hole. We know that the Medicare levy was first introduced by the Hawke government in 1984, at one per cent. It was then increased to 1.25 per cent, in 1986. The Keating government increased it to 1.4 per cent and then to 1.5 per cent. And it was increased to two per cent on the proposal of the Gillard government. That change, as we know, had full bipartisan support. On each of these occasions, the universality of the Medicare levy was maintained as we moved forward.

We are taking the same approach to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme as was taken by the former Gillard government when it came to raising the Medicare levy by half a per cent. That comes in in two years time, when the bills come in. Today I introduced legislation to lift the indexation of the Medicare levy low-income threshold. An estimated 100,000 Australians will now join the nine million other Australian adults who are not required to pay the levy. The changes, which will cost the Commonwealth some $180 million over the forward estimates, will exempt couples and families from paying the Medicare levy if their combined income is less than $36,541. And couples and families who are eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset will not be liable to pay the Medicare levy if their combined income is less than $47,670. The Medicare levy has built-in carve-outs for those on low incomes and for vulnerable Australians. That was respected as a principle by all the predecessors of the Leader of the Opposition who led the Labor Party, and it is a principle that is now being abandoned by the Leader of the Opposition in the name of cheap politics.

The government stands ready to stand in the middle of this parliament and ask the opposition to join us in fully funding the NDIS. We are both committed to this scheme. I commend the Gillard government for introducing the scheme, and we invite the Leader of the Opposition to do the right thing by disabled Australians and their families and support the government's middle-ground proposal.