Bill’s sums don’t add up

Bill Shorten claims there is no funding hole in the NDIS while simultaneously promising a tax increase to fill it.

Bill, if there’s no hole in the NDIS funding, why are you proposing a permanent tax increase to fill it?

Labor wants to apply a 0.5 per cent Medicare levy to the top two marginal tax brackets and make the 2 per cent Budget deficit reduction levy permanent. Problem is they have already spent their deficit reduction levy on their election promises. It can’t be spent twice – so they still haven’t funded the NDIS.

Labor never fully funded the NDIS when it was in government.

They claimed they funded the NDIS – in a glossy brochure issued as part of the 2013 Budget.

But the Budget papers revealed another story. A $4 billion a year funding gap in the NDIS in 2019-20, the first full year of the Scheme – a figure that grows each and every year to a total gap of $55 billion over ten years.

Labor’s promises to people living with disability were hollow. They misled the most vulnerable in our community and now they’re doing it again.

In Tuesday’s Budget, the Turnbull Government announced a modest 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy from 1 July 2019 to fill Labor’s NDIS funding gap.

The community response to this important Budget measure has been positive.

Australians believe in fairness and are willing to support a fair go for people with disability to ensure they have the services and supports they need to live fulfilling lives.

Any one of us could find ourselves or a loved one in tragic circumstances requiring the services and supports of the NDIS.

The Turnbull Government’s Budget measures will deliver that.

If there’s no hole in NDIS funding, Bill Shorten’s announcement tonight is nothing more than a blatant tax grab.

Which is it Bill?