Disability groups tell Bill Shorten the Medicare levy increase is fair
Disability groups have urged Opposition Leader Bill Shorten not to play politics with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), describing an increase to the Medicare levy as a fair way to secure its future.
The Coalition wants to increase the levy by 0.5 percentage points from 2019 to fund the scheme, which has reignited a debate about whether or not Labor left a multi-billion funding black hole.
Mr Shorten has supported the Medicare levy, but only for the top 20 per cent of wage earners with a taxable income higher than $87,001.
Disability Advocacy Network’s chief executive Mary Mallet told the ABC she did not want to see the future of the scheme used for political point scoring.
“It seems to us that people do understand that it’s a fair way to do it, because the Medicare levy is paid in proportion to people’s income,” she said.
“It is not an unreasonable way to pay for something that befits everyone in the country.”
Source: ABC News