Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the interjection from the member for Durack, because she seems surprised that Labor supports this legislation. I am not sure what she has been listening to. I note the member for Fenner's amendment suggesting that:

… whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the Government for giving a tax increase to low and middle income families, and giving a tax cut to millionaires.

However, that is in the context generally of the Medicare levy surcharge and the increase, particularly for those above $87,000 or thereabouts. This bill will increase the Medicare levy low-income thresholds, particularly for individuals and families eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset, in line with shifts in the consumer price index. Those opposite need to understand that. Why does a sensible government do this? It is to ensure that these families and individuals do not have a Medicare levy liability where they do not have an income tax liability. The bill will also increase the Medicare levy surcharge low-income threshold in line with movements in the CPI. Labor supports the indexation of the income thresholds so that Australians who are not earning high incomes will not pay the Medicare levy or Medicare surcharge.

It is only fair that our most vulnerable Australians are not disadvantaged in order to maintain our world-class universal healthcare system—a world-class universal healthcare system made by Labor. The foundations were put down by previous Labor governments under Hawke and Keating. Rudd and Gillard, after, made those foundations stronger. Medicare is one of the greatest legacies, I would suggest, of the late and great Gough Whitlam. The scheme was originally proposed by the economists Richard Scotton and John Deeble in 1968 but was introduced by the Whitlam Labor government in 1975. The birth of Medibank, as it was originally called, was not an easy one. Prior to its introduction there was a bitter battle with doctors' groups, private insurers, most state governments and, most defiantly and short-sightedly, the coalition parties: the Liberal Party and the National Party.

The legislation eventually passed in August 1974, but not before it was necessary to hold a double-dissolution election and a joint sitting of federal parliament. That is a fair dinkum reason to go for a double-dissolution election, not the concocted reason given by the Prime Minister prior to the election on 2 July last year. In the nine months after the legislation was implemented on 1 July 1975, Medibank staff increased from 22 to 3,500, and 81 offices were opened. But the optimism for the new universal healthcare system was short lived. Sadly, the Fraser coalition government, after taking office in November 1975, introduced a series of modifications which resulted in Medibank being dismantled by 1981. It was the Hawke Labor government, when it was elected in 1983, that acted promptly to re-establish a universal health insurance scheme that is the envy of the world. The reinstated scheme was renamed and rebadged as Medicare.

Medicare commenced operation on 1 February 1984. Medicare, like Medibank before it, included free public hospital treatment and subsidised or free medical services, depending on whether the provider bulk-billed. Medicare was funded by a one per cent levy on taxable income. There have been a few policy tweaks to Medicare since 1984, but the central tenets of providing universal medical benefits and free public hospital treatment, regardless of income, have been largely preserved. Medicare has so far survived several more coalition governments since the Fraser government, but we know that the coalition fundamentally do not believe in Medicare. They never have and they never will. It is not in their DNA like it is in the Labor Party's. Any chance the coalition get to tinker with or destroy Medicare, they will take. They have form. It is in their DNA.

Labor will always protect our world-class universal healthcare scheme. We are proud of this legacy and will defend it any day, every day. Central to our universal healthcare scheme is the notion of fairness. Whether you live in Point Piper or in Proserpine, it is fair that you are able to access quality health care. It is fair that what you or your parents earn should not determine whether you can access the health care that you need. It is fair that everyone in Australia can access quality health care.

The Medicare levy was originally set at one per cent of taxable income, with exemptions for those on low incomes. It is currently levied at two per cent of taxable income, again with exemptions for those on lower incomes. The Turnbull government announced in the 2017 budget that the Medicare levy will increase to 2.5 per cent. This increase will apply to everyone. And at the same time the coalition government are hiking the Medicare levy for everyone, including low-paid workers, they are discontinuing the deficit levy imposed on those who earn over $180,000 a year. Remember the deficit levy that was brought in by former Treasurer—

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