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

and the Leader of the Opposition himself argued for the essential fairness and equity of increasing the Medicare levy by 50 per cent so that the NDIS would be funded. Now, it was not enough to fund it entirely, but he called on our side of the House, the coalition, to support it, and we did. We backed it in, because it was fair. Labor knew it was fair then, and in their hearts they know it is fair now. The member for Grayndler does. The shadow cabinet does. The caucus does. Not even 14 minutes of torture could change their minds! They know that national disability insurance is a great national enterprise of which the Labor Party can claim to own at least half, because it was a bipartisan effort. Labor can say, 'It happened under our government.' They can make that claim. We do not deny the history.

But what shames the Labor Party today is that, having made the promise, they will not pay for it, knowing the justice that we are setting out, the justice of being able to ask Australians to pay the Medicare levy—with low-income individuals and low-income households of course protected by the threshold, as has always been the case. Labor knows this is just, but their leader, trapped in his own political bind of constantly seeking one cynical tactical advantage after another, is not going to look into the eyes of the people to whom he has promised so much and say, 'We will pay for it.' Well, we will, the parliament will, and Labor will be shown up as the makers of empty promises—frauds and fakes, betraying the very people they promised to protect.

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