George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry: I thought it was pretty clear from what I was saying that I was disputing what Senator Wong had put to me. If it is not perfectly clear to you, Senator Wong, there is nothing that the Prime Minister has said in the past that is at variance from the announcements that were made last night. If I may turn to some of those measures—as I was saying, are you going to be opposing in this chamber a measure that supports and funds the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which in two years time will involve a half a per cent increase in the Medicare levy, or will you support it in this chamber? Because the ball is now in your court.

The ball is now in the court of Mr Shorten to decide whether or not he will support these measures, or whether he will support the government's initiative to bring the budget back into surplus sooner to fund programs like the NDIS on a secure basis or to expect banks, for instance, to pay a fairer contribution to the revenue through the levy we announced last night, and all the other fairness measures that we announced in this budget. As I said in answer to your colleague Senator Gallagher, the underlying theme of this budget is fairness. Are you on the side of fairness or are you not? (Time expired)