In The Media | 29 August 2017

Our Say: Everyone should pay their share for NDIS

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The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS, has itself been labouring under something of a disability of its own: lack of money.

The scheme was a promise of the Gillard government in 2012. But that promise was unfunded, which made it more like a good idea than well-thought-out public policy.

That is now about to be rectified. How well it is rectified will be up to the Senate, where Treasurer Scott Morrison appears to be confident a deal can be struck with enough crossbenchers to put the scheme on a sound financial footing at last. The government wants to raise the Medicare levy from its present 2 per cent of income to 2.5 per cent in order to fund the NDIS.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has decided that is unacceptable and wants to impose the higher levy only on taxpayers in the top two tax brackets – that is, those earning more than $87,000. He justifies this by contrasting the extra burden on the low paid with the government’s “tax cuts for the wealthy”. It is a surprising and disappointing attempt at populism on his part.

Source: Dubbo Daily Liberal