Wednesday 1 May 2013

Medicare Disability Levy

Media Release.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Today I announced a strong and stable funding stream for generations to come for DisabilityCare Australia, the national disability insurance scheme. We will increase the Medicare Levy by half a percentage point from 1 July 2014 – this will take the Medicare Levy from 1.5 per cent of taxable income to 2 per cent.

The key thing I need Australians to know is this:
for someone earning an average wage of around $70,000 a year, this will be a modest contribution of around 96 cents a day.

If you can share that one fact with every one you speak to about DisabilityCare, I know we will get this done.

So many of you tell me that DisabilityCare is exactly the kind of compassionate social policy you want Labor to fight for. So many of you tell me how proud you were to fight for Medibank in the 1970s and to fight for Medicare in the 1980s – and even in the 1990s when our opponents still pledged to abolish it if elected in 1993.

410, 000 of our fellow citizens need us to fight for them now – and every Australian deserves a safety net. That money will support a better life for
hundreds of thousands of Australians with a significant and permanent disability, their families and carers.

That money will also protect
every Australian – anyone who might acquire a disability will have a new safety net to rely on.

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