Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. This is an important issue for us on this side of the House. In the Senate very soon we are going to see a vote on the Tax Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy Surcharge Thresholds) Bill 2008. As many people would be aware, this is a bill designed to deliver relief to working families, particularly those who are struggling with their household budgets. The purpose of this budget measure was to provide relief to working families and to adjust a threshold which had not been changed or 10 years. The tax, as the member for Higgins would know, was originally meant to apply to high-income earners but now slugs many hundreds of thousands of working families earning less than the average wage. We remain determined to deliver relief to working families. It is true that there has been some opposition to this measure. We have listened to what has been said and we have consulted extensively. I would like to share with the House some comments made in the other place. Here is what Liberal Senator Colbeck said about this measure:

If they are talking about indexation … then indexation of this measure would have put the threshold at about $75,000 or $76,000.

Then Western Australian Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann, the Leader of the Opposition’s new shadow parliamentary secretary for health administration and, I might note, the former head of a private health insurance fund, said—

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