(image via Odyssey)
Labour leader Bill Shorten has defended his party’s funding arrangements for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, insisting that the scheme had been fully funded by the previous Labour government.
Delivering his budget reply speech, the Opposition Leader confirmed that Labour would support the rise in the Medicare Levy for high income earners only.
But Shorten said Labour had fully funded the NDIS, and hit out at Coalition claims that Labour had not funded the full cost of the NDIS.
“Labour didn’t just create the NDIS – we fully funded it, we budgeted for it – and Treasury confirmed it,” Shorten said in his speech.
“And – after 3 years of Liberal Cabinet leaks questioning the cost and the value of the NDIS – we will not have our commitment challenged by those opposite.”
In his speech, Shorten said the time he spent working with Jenny Macklin and Julia Gilliard to help design and deliver the NDIS was a great privilege, and that he would not renege on promises which Labour had made to the parents of those with disabilities who were concerned about who would care for and love their child when they were gone.
He defended Labour’s approach toward NDIS funding when in government, saying that independent Parliament Budget Office data had indicated that his plan would deliver more revenue compared with the government’s plan over the medium term.
“For our party, the National Disability Insurance Scheme is an article of faith,” .
“Labour fully-funded it in government, we will fight for it in Opposition – and we will never see the people who rely on it, go without the money they need.”
Shorten’s claim follows moves on the part of the federal government to fully fund the NDIS by introducing a 0.5 percent increase in the Medicare Levy to apply to all taxpayers after 1 July 2019.
In his budget speech on Tuesday, Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison argued that the measures would bridge what he said was a $55.7 million funding gap with regard to the NDIS over the next ten years.
But Shorten said Labour would back the Medicare Levy rise only for Australians in the top two income tax brackets, arguing that increasing the tax on lower income earners when the government was unfair in light of tax breaks being provided to large companies.
