10 minute MPI Speech Thursday, May 11, 2017*

As the Member for Hunter, who is just leaving here now, knows well, I grew up in a small country town not far from here.

Like most kids, we talked at school often about what was fair and what was not. We would talk about having a fair go, a fair crack of the whip, but not once—not once—did that mean taking the fastest runner and making them run slower.

Not once did that mean taking the smartest kid and forcing them to play dumb. Not once did that mean taking the richest kid and taking away their money.

No, it meant simply giving everyone a fair go. In fact, as one of the most revered leaders on the other side of the House in recent years once said, it is about giving them a fair suck of the sauce bottle so that everyone has their opportunity to be the best.

It turns out that Labor used to think that giving everyone a fair go was the right thing to do. Hawke and Keating believed that tax cuts—almost halving the company tax—were about giving Australians a fair go. More recently, exactly three years ago today—it was exactly three years ago today that the Leader of the Opposition said in this chamber:

I invite you to work with me on a fair— note the word 'fair'— and fiscally responsible plan to reduce the tax rate for Australian … business from 30 per cent to 25 per cent—not a 1½ per cent cut; a five per cent cut.

He used the word 'fair'. And other luminaries from the other side agree. One in particular recently wrote: Small business represents aspiration. Aspiration—that is what we believe over here.

He went on: It represents people who want to break away from a salaried job …

He then went on to argue for tax cuts. He said, 'A cut in company tax would be a good thing.' In fact, as we just heard, he went on to say it is a Labor thing.

Of course, that member was the member for McMahon, in his book—which is worth a read, for all of you over there—called Hearts & Minds.

It was back in 2015 that I went to a tax reform summit hosted by the AFR. I asked if he accepted former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson's statement that company tax falls hardest on workers.

The member for McMahon told the summit: It's a statement of fact, which I agree with.

That is fair: more for workers. So the member for McMahon used to think that reducing company tax rates was fair, but no longer, it seems.

In fact, what we have seen in recent years is a Labor Party that have lost their moral compass. They no longer believe in giving Australians a fair go.

They have called out to the crass calls for pure equality, not fairness but equality, from people like Corbyn and Sanders. Indeed, we just heard an extraordinary speech from the shadow finance minister where he announced a tax increase after railing for four minutes about how bad higher taxes are. They are stoked by intellectuals like Piketty who want to tax aspiration and businesses into oblivion.

In fact, this situation is so bad that you have a leader in the Labor Party who thinks it is fair to cut workers' penalty rates. We know the Leader of the Opposition's idea of fairness is to sell out workers on penalty rates while he claims, to their faces, that he will look after them.

We know that in the case of Cleanevent it took the royal commission to uncover the deal, which was then terminated in 2015 on the application of employees because, in the words of the lawyer from the AWU: … the only purpose that it— that is, the Cleanevent agreement— is currently serving is to deny employees, particularly casual employees, access to penalty rates.

The Leader of the Opposition claims that he believes in and stands up for fairness. Just ask the workers at Chiquita Mushrooms about the Leader of the Opposition's idea of fairness.

He saved Chiquita Mushrooms millions from the abolition of overtime rates, amongst other savings.

We know that the moral compass of the Labor Party has gone a long way south in recent years.

Turning to the Coalition's policy and view of fairness, we do want to give everyone a fair go. That means fully funded programs for our kids at schools and universities.

It means fully funded programs for the disabled. It means genuine programs to make housing affordable. We know that, when the Labor Party talks about fully funded programs, it is vapourware.

If I turn for a moment to the NDIS, we have said that the Turnbull government will guarantee the NDIS is fully funded by legislating a 0.5 per cent increase in the Medicare levy. That will provide certainty for NDIS participants.

We know that. In contrast, despite a lot of promises, we know the previous Labor government failed to fully fund the NDIS, leaving a funding gap in 2019-20 of $4 billion—a gap which grows each and every year and, in fact, increases to north of $7 billion.

Labor like the claim—and I am sure the shadow finance minister would claim this—that they clearly identified enough other long-term savings to pay for the NDIS. But, when you look at the actual budget papers, they did not link any savings to the NDIS funding. In fact, it was only in a glossy in the 2013-14 budget that we find any funding commitments to the NDIS

 I have the glossy here. It looks very impressive; it is called DisabilityCare Australia. In it, under 'Meeting the costs of DisabilityCare Australia', there is a category which is basically the biggest part of the funding for the NDIS, and it is called 'Other long-term savings'. It is a very nice blue colour. It turns out that, in Senate estimates, Treasury officials were asked whether those measures could be listed in detail.

The Treasury officials' answer was, 'The short answer is no.'

It was totally unfunded, but to 'Other long-term savings' were hitched the hopes and dreams of disabled people across Australia.

Many of the other savings that Labor supposedly allocated to the NDIS had actually been announced long before and assigned to other purposes, without any mention of the NDIS whatsoever. I have bad news for those opposite about budgets. You can only spend your money once—not two times, three times or four times. Unfortunately, disabled people across Australia had their money—the money that was supposed to be spent on the scheme to which they had hitched their hopes and dreams—spent many times over by the Labor Party.

In contrast, our additional increase to the Medicare levy will apply from 1 July 2019 and will raise, initially, $3.6 billion, and increase from there. Importantly, as a fairness measure, because this is about fairness, low-income earners will continue to be exempt from the Medicare levy and will not be impacted by the increase.

Because it is a universal insurance scheme, everyone should pay their fair share and contribute to it through the Medicare levy. Australians who can afford to will pay for this scheme.

*In response to Labor's 'The Government delivering a budget lacking fairness'.