Shorten backs Medicare pain, but not for low earners
OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten has given his support to the Turnbull Government’s plan to increase the Medicare levy — but only for Australians earning more than $87,000.
In his Budget reply speech last night, Labor’s leader also backed the government’s $6.2 billion tax hit on the big banks.
But he said it wasn’t a “Labor lite” Budget, saying “where it seeks to imitate Labor policies, it fails miserably”.
“This is the Budget of a government that wants to bury its past and rewrite its history,” he said.
“This Budget is an admission of guilt. A signed confession.”
Mr Shorten accused Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of giving the banks a “a levy with one hand, a tax cut with the other, and a free pass for bad behaviour”.
“And let me make this clear, if the banks pass on a single dollar of this tax to Australian families, then that should be the end of this Treasurer, this Prime Minister and this government,” he told parliament.
He revealed a new policy to stop people claiming more than $3000 in deductions for using accountants to handle their tax affairs, which he said would save more than $1.3 billion over the medium term.
Treasurer Scott Morrison revealed on Tuesday night the government would fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme by lifting the Medicare levy from 2 to 2.5 per cent.
Mr Shorten said the NDIS was an “article of faith” for Labor and those that used it would always be supported.
But he said he could not support increasing taxes on lowincome earners.
“When wages growth is at record lows, when insecure work is on the rise, when the cost of essentials continues to increase, Labor cannot support making people on modest incomes give up even more of their pay packet,” he said.
Mr Shorten said keeping the Budget repair levy on highincome earners instead of raising the Medicare levy for all would gain $4.45 billion more revenue than the government’s plan in the medium term.
The government will now need the support of the Greens or the crossbench senators to pass the increase in full.
Mr Shorten said a Labor government would allocate two-thirds of revenue raised by increasing fees on temporary work visas to supporting TAFE.
He would restore $600 million cut from the training sector and start a $100 million infrastructure fund to improve kitchens and workshops at TAFEs.
Mr Shorten left the door open to backing the Coalition’s school funding reforms, but would restore the $22 billion Gonski funding it had dumped.