The Project
HOST: The Prime Minister joins us now to talk more about this.
Prime Minister congratulations, this is a very important reform, but it‘s not going to happen unless you win the election.
Tony Abbott has come out and said why don't you do it now?
Why don't you do it now, why don't you just push it through?
PM: Well, I'm very happy to bring the legislation to increase the Medicare levy to the parliament.
If the Opposition is going to vote for it, then we know it will go through.
If the Opposition is going to say no, they don't want to vote for it, then the Australian people get to decide this issue in September.
Unfortunately, across the day, even though the Leader of the Opposition Mr Abbott has spoken on more than one occasion, he has not said whether or not he supports this move to increase the Medicare levy by 0.5 per cent.
This is important funding, because what we want to do is make sure that every Australian with a disability knows that DisabilityCare is there and that for all of us, for any of us, we never know when in our lives we might confront a disability or a family member might, we have got the peace of mind which knows with coming, just like Medicare, DisabilityCare is there to support people with disabilities.
HOST: You have no argument from us on how important this is for all Australians, not just Australians with a disability. But why does it need to have a levy on it?
There's been more controversial pieces of legislation that just get passed with no questions asked about the money spent on them. Is there a levy just because it's such a worthy cause, you think it's popular enough to stick a levy on it?
PM: Let me assure you there is nothing that passes the Parliament, nothing we do, which has money associated, that doesn't get the utmost scrutiny.
And the way in which we manage the budget now, is if we're going to spend more money, then we do have to make savings on the federal budget.
So that's the approach. For something as big as this, we want to have secure long-term financing. And that's why I've announced today this would be funded in part by an increase in the Medicare levy.
Yes, more money would need to be found as well and we'll do the savings for that. But this would be a long-term funding source.
HOST: The Coalition has labelled this as just another broken promise. Do you think people will feel down that you have changed your mind?
PM: I've changed my mind for good reason.
And I think people expect everyone to deal with the facts and everyone to grapple with the facts and to make the best decisions that you can when you're dealing with the facts.
And since I made those statements about Medicare levies, since the middle of last year, the following things that have happened have made a difference to me.
Firstly, we know that the amount of tax money coming to the Government is less than was expected.
Second, we've had lots of conversations with the states and territories, we need them to step up to the plate, but we understand when the scheme is in full operation, it is a big amount of money to ask them for.
And so we're going to share some of this levy money with them as well.
And then third, I've listened to for the calls for the disability sector, and they're saying please identify long-term funding.
HOST: Now, it's a great scheme. Well done for that. But the levy is only going to pay for a little bit less than half of it, Prime Minister, where will the rest of the money come from?
PM: We've identified some big savings in the Government's budget.
Things that haven't necessarily been popular like for example the changes we've made to the private health insurance rebate, which saves money now and that saving grows over the longer term.
That's the kind of saving that can then be used to fund disability care.
At the end of the day, all of this comes down to choices and values.
What do you value most? What are you prepared to put the nation's resources behind?
For me, my values say we shouldn't as Australians let another Australian get left behind.
If we see somebody who is not getting the care they need, because they have got a disability, we have got to fix that.
And the best way of doing that, is DisabilityCare for the long-term.
Funding that, let's all share the burden through an increase in the Medicare levy and let's make smart savings and decisions to pay for the rest.
HOST: Prime Minister, you've said that you had to change the funding model for this because the budget changed.
Why does it keep feeling like the Government is surprised by changes to the budget constantly?
PM: We take the best of advice and the best of forecasting, but we are in an unusual period with our economy.
There's an overhang from the global financial crisis on company profitability, even though our economy is growing.
Then we've seen this huge lift in the value of the dollar.
That can be a good thing, if you're travelling overseas, but if you are a manufacturer or business that exports, it's putting a lot of pressure on your company profitability.
And for those that compete with imports, a high dollar means imports are cheaper and there's pressure on them too.
I think intuitively a lot of Australians know that it's been pretty tough for business.
That means less company profitability, less tax coming into the Government.
We've got to face up to that and deal with it. And it's less than was forecast, even as recently as three or six months ago.
HOST: Well, we look forward to the scheme finally being in place. Hopefully, we do get it funded. Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
PM: I'm going to keep working on it. Thank you.
[ENDS]