House debates

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Questions without Notice

Budget

2:42 pm

Photo of Malcolm TurnbullMalcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member may ask herself, how is it fair to leave the National Disability Insurance Scheme unfunded? How is it fair to say to the parents of disabled children in her electorate of Parramatta that the money is not there? Because that is what her party has done—failed to fund the NDIS. The minister has exposed the extraordinary hypocrisy of the member for Lilley when he talked about hanging tough and his commitment to funding it. Now he is as quiet as a mouse there on the back bench, not standing up to do the right thing, which is to fund the NDIS. The flight attendant on $60,000 in Parramatta would pay additional tax as part of the increase in the Medicare levy, and she and her family will be protected by the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It will apply across the board in exactly the same way that her party's former leader, Julia Gillard, and her party's current leader, the member for Maribyrnong, said it should all those years ago.

The truth of the matter is this: Labor talks about jobs; they talk about growth; they talk about equity. But invariably the people they hurt are middle-income Australians who are seeking to get ahead. I want to draw the honourable member's attention to another passage from that memorable address by the Leader of the Opposition today. He said, 'We're taking action on negative gearing and the capital gains discount to unsustainably generous tax concessions which are distorting the housing market in favour of wealthy investors.'

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting

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