Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Bill 2021. This bill implements a number of minor Treasury law amendments and measures from the 2021-22 budget. At the outset, I can confirm that Labor will be supporting this bill.

Schedule 1 of the bill increases the low-income threshold for the Medicare levy, changing thresholds in line with changes to the consumer price index. The Medicare levy low-income threshold, beyond which the Medicare levy is not required to be paid, is currently $22,801 for individuals. This will increase to $23,226 following the passage of the bill. These changes affect single households, pensioners, families and students and will keep the Medicare levy payment thresholds in line with inflation.

Medicare is one of Australia's greatest achievements, and it is the envy of other countries. But, once again, the Liberals have been caught trying to cut it. While the rest of us are focused on health, our communities and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is absolutely on brand that the Liberals decided to take this opportunity to sneak through cuts to Medicare funding for vital surgery. Let's be honest about what's happening here. We're in the middle of a global pandemic, the biggest health crisis for 100 years. Sneaking through an attack on Medicare should not be their priority.

Over the past eight years, the cost of seeing a doctor has gone up and wait times are longer, especially in rural and regional Australia. I know that in the town that I grew up in on the Far North Coast sometimes it is not possible to see a GP for weeks. It is not good enough. Labor built Medicare. Defending it is in our DNA. The Liberals opposed it from the outset and cutting it is in theirs.

Schedule 2 of this bill expands the objectives of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation Act 2018 to allow it to assist eligible single parents with dependents. The stated purpose of this measure is to allow the government to implement its policies in relation to support for single parents entering the housing market. Labor supports improving homeownership across all demographics, particularly single parents who have significantly lower rates of homeownership than the broader population.

We have always worked to make housing more affordable for ordinary Australians. After eight long years of this tired government, housing affordability has got worse and worse. There are more homeless Australians than ever before, and it is hard to see how the government policy we are considering this evening will do anything to address this. As my colleague in the other place, shadow minister for housing, Jason Clare, said, this policy does not go far enough. There are about one million single-parent families around Australia; this policy will help about 10,000. In other words, one in 100. I'd like to point out that the fastest growing group of homeless Australians at the moment are older women aged 54 to 65. This policy does nothing to help the growing number of older women who are experiencing poverty and homelessness in retirement. It pales in comparison with Labor's $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build social and affordable housing now and into the future. This policy will create jobs, build homes and change lives.

Schedule 3 of this bill will exempt eligible payments made by the Australian government to thalidomide survivors from income tax and from the social security and veterans entitlement income test. The use of thalidomide in the 1950s and sixties was a tragedy. That tragedy continues to have devastating effects for the survivors of thalidomide and their families. They continue to experience ongoing health concerns and suffer from the after effects of thalidomide.

Schedule 4 of this bill provides an income tax exemption for qualifying grants made to primary producers and small businesses affected by the February and March 2021 storms and floods. This is a small measure of assistance for those businesses. Labor welcomes it, but we note the government's ongoing shambolic response to natural disasters. We saw what happened in the 2021 bushfires. We know that money was left sitting in funds for months and months while survivors suffered and struggled. There were lots of photo ops, but very little delivery—another case of too little, too late.

Finally, schedule 5 of this bill includes several new additions to the list of deductable gift recipients in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. This is welcome.

Overall, the measures in this bill are sensible, of modest impact and measured. Labor will support them.