Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2017. This bill will increase the Medicare levy by half a per cent to a total of 2.5 per cent to fully fund the NDIS. This bill will also increase the Medicare levy low-income threshold for singles, families, seniors and pensioners for the 2016-17 financial year, in line with movements in the consumer price index.

Australians place great faith in their government to provide them with the services that are essential for them and their families to go about their day and their business. The average Australian does not want government interfering in their life. What they want is for us to do our job in this place and to give them the services that best allow them to go about their day. This is precisely what our recent budget has set out to do. We have guaranteed the funding for the services that have been promised to the Australian people for the last few years—especially the most vulnerable of Australians. That is important because trust in politicians and trust in this House is at an all-time low. We must all work harder to regain that trust.

I hope that, in the debate around this bill and the criticisms that have been levelled at this government, we do not lose sight of the fact that our most recent budget fundamentally guarantees funding for some of the most essential services that Australians take for granted, and so they should. Re-indexing Medicare, fully funding the NDIS, addressing the inequity in federal funding for schools in Western Australia—our recent budget achieves all of this.

With respect to this bill that we are debating, this measure is ensuring that those low-income households without the financial capacity to pay the Medicare levy will continue to not pay that levy. That is a simple, fair and reasonable measure by this government. That means that no Medicare levy will be paid by an individual taxpayer with income up to an amount of $21,655. Single taxpayers with no dependents will only pay after their income hits an amount of $27,068. Couples and families not eligible for the seniors and pensioners offset will not pay the levy until their income hits $36,541, whereas couples eligible for the seniors and pensioners tax offset will not pay the levy until their income hits some $47,670.

As you can see, this is all very reasonable. So why is it that Labor, up until recently, have been denying us the chance to fully fund the NDIS? I heard from the member for Moreton, who was the previous speaker, that now they are all on board, they are happy with this particular bill and they are going to sign up to it. That is good, but there is no denying that there was one great big whopping hole left that had to be filled. The arrogant claim that our funds were wrong and that they had fully funded it was incorrect. Although I am told by those opposite that they support it, let's see how we go at the end when we actually vote on this.

What we do know at this point in time is that Labor did not fully fund the NDIS. The budget papers very clearly demonstrate that there was a $55 billion hole between now and 2027-28. There is a funding shortfall; there is no denying that. This government has taken the hard steps towards fully funding the NDIS, because Labor were clearly incapable of doing so. Only this government will support the most vulnerable Australians, and I am immensely proud of that.

Our government is asking those who earn more to pay more of the Medicare levy to help support those vulnerable, most disadvantaged Australians, and I believe that that is appropriate. A taxpayer on $80,000 a year will pay $1,600 in a Medicare levy. A taxpayer earning $240,000 a year will pay $4,800 in a Medicare levy. Very clearly, those who are earning more are paying more and those who are earning less are paying less or, where appropriate, nothing at all.

This class warfare rhetoric that we are hearing time and time again from Labor—we heard it from the previous speaker and we will no doubt hear it from the next speaker well—is clearly their fallback. The reason why it is their fallback is that, when they have nothing constructive to say, we hear this time and time again. Labor always revert back to what boils down to the politics of envy, always banging on about how the top income earners are not paying their fair share and that somehow they are ripping off the system. But the reality is that the top 10 per cent of income earners pay 60 per cent of the income tax in this country. That is undeniable. I think what incenses Labor so much—and we have seen this in this debate tonight—is that, after all is said and done, what we have proposed in our budget is actually indeed very good for Australians.

This bill is getting on with the job of looking after Australians' needs. It is guaranteeing essential government services over the forward estimates. These are the big programs that people rely upon day in and day out. This is ensuring that Medicare is protected. This is the Commonwealth funding for schools, especially in Western Australia, which is the biggest winner here. This is also fully funding the NDIS. It is on that basis that I commend this bill to the House.

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