Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that this conservative government has delivered the worst pay conditions for working Australians since records began? When Australians are already suffering from the worst pay conditions on record, why does this Prime Minister have legislation in the Senate right now to increase the tax on someone earning $60,000 by $300 every year?

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

The Leader of the House will cease interjecting.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I gather the honourable member wants to know why we have legislation in the Senate to increase the Medicare levy, and the answer is: to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Remember that? The reason we are doing that is that the Labor Party did not fund it. That's the reason we're doing it. We're doing it so that the parents of disabled children, who are concerned whether there will be the money in place to pay for their children's care after they're gone, will know that the money is there, the funding is secure and the NDIS is guaranteed.

Labor's approach to the NDIS has been fraudulent. They have claimed some kind of moral high ground for supporting it and then failed recklessly to pay for it. They have mocked the families of disabled children. They have mocked them by seeking to elicit their praise and thanks for a disability insurance scheme they wouldn't pay for. The Labor Party should stop its hypocrisy and should get behind that legislation and pay for that great, compassionate national enterprise.