MPs to vote on disability levy after Abbott indicates support

Updated

Legislation to pass a disability care levy will be brought before Parliament before the election, with the Prime Minister welcoming the Opposition's apparent support for the new tax.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said earlier today that the Coalition was prepared to "consider supporting" the 0.5 percentage point increase to the Medicare levy and would not "quibble" over it.

Julia Gillard has welcomed his apparent support and says she will bring the levy legislation to Parliament this term.

What is DisabilityCare? The scheme will support more than 400,000 Australians with a disability, their families and carers

It will help pay for carers, to give parents of children with a disability a break

to give parents of children with a disability a break It will help pay for new wheelchairs tailored to individual needs

tailored to individual needs It will fund home modifications to help people with a disability move around easier

to help people with a disability move around easier It will fund early intervention services children, like physiotherapy and speech pathology

and The increase to the Medicare levy equates to an extra dollar a day for an average income earner

The change would collect $20 billion in its first five years

"The Leader of the Opposition has changed his mind on this matter and I welcome that change of mind," Ms Gillard said.

"On the basis of that change of mind by the Leader of the Opposition, I will bring to the Parliament the legislation to increase the Medicare levy by half a per cent."

Mr Abbott has previously said it would be better to fund the scheme through general government revenue.

But today he emphasised the Coalition's bipartisan support for the scheme and conditional support for the proposed levy.

"We are prepared to consider supporting a modest increase in the Medicare levy to make sure that this happens as soon as possible," he said.

"We do want to see this come into the Parliament in this term.

"There are five weeks of Parliament remaining, and I don't see why we can't get this dealt with so that this Parliament does have a substantial monument.

"This is not a day to be quibbling over something which is very, very important to the future of our country."

Ms Gillard announced the levy yesterday, saying voters would be asked to give her a mandate and "make their choice" in the September 14 federal election.

However the Government now plans to bring the necessary legislation to the Parliament during the week of the federal budget.

But after Mr Abbott challenged her to bring the matter before Parliament this term, she declared she would immediately if Mr Abbott backed it.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Julia Gillard says levy laws to go before Parliament (ABC News)

The Opposition Leader has still not given his unconditional support to the levy, repeating his call for more detail.

"It is important the Prime Minister come clean with all the details," he said.

"How is this scheme going to be fully funded and who exactly will be covered?"

"At the moment we've got a half-funded scheme, what we don't want is half a scheme to go with half the funding."

The levy will raise $3.2 billion a year. However when it is fully operational in 2018-19, the scheme is estimated to cost $8 billion a year.

The Prime Minister has said the extra money would have to come from federal, state and territory coffers.

In a statement, the Opposition outlined further conditions to its support for the levy.

It wants legislation introducing the levy to also explain how the scheme will work and who will be eligible.

The Coalition has called on the Government to release all the details of bilateral agreements with states and territories, and it also wants the fund that holds the levy proceeds to be steered by the guardians of the Future Fund.

However, a spokesman for Mr Abbott said the conditions were "not about setting the bar so high they can't be leapt over" and that Mr Abbott wanted to be "genuinely constructive".

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Abbott offers conditional support for levy increase (ABC News)

'Let's do it right'

Ms Gillard brushed aside Mr Abbott's list of conditions as mere "matters of detail".

"I understand the Leader of the Opposition has raised some matters of detail," she said.

"In those areas the Government was already working prior to my announcement about the Medicare levy yesterday.

"On the question of savings to support DisabilityCare, we have been outlining long-term savings.

"What I've announced with the increase in the Medicare levy would fully fund what we need to do with DisabilityCare over the next five years."

It is clear Mr Abbott wants to neutralise disability funding as a potential election issue, and has repeatedly highlighted his long-standing support for an insurance scheme.

"I am, as all of you know, profoundly committed to the NDIS. I've been calling from the beginning for a bipartisan approach to this," he said.

John Della Bosca, the head of the group lobbying for an NDIS, says the two sides of politics have inched towards a bipartisan position on the funding of a scheme.

"It's very important, I think, to give credit where credit is due and say that Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have respectively shown great leadership and great compassion in arriving at the positions they have as of today," he said.

Meanwhile, another state has signed up to the full rollout of the scheme.

Ms Gillard has reached agreement with the Labor Government in Tasmania, with the state set to provide $232 million and the Commonwealth contributing $245m by 2018-19.

South Australia, the ACT and New South Wales have also signed up to the scheme in full.

DisabilityCare will begin at launch sites around the country, except for Western Australia, from July.

Topics: disabilities, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia

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