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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaks at a press conference in Melbourne, Australia, May 1, 2013. (Xinhua/Bai Xue)
The Labor government's new national disability care scheme, which lead to a 0.5 percentage point increase of the Medicare levy, could be put the legislation to Parliament before the election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Thursday.
According to Gillard, she wanted to introduce a bill of this scheme during the budget session of parliament beginning May 14.
This scheme, which will cost someone earning 70,000 dollars ( almost 72,400 U.S. dollars) about 365 (almost 377 U.S. dollars) extra a year and will be increased by half a percentage point of the Medicare levy from July 1, 2014, has been supported by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott today.
"The Leader of the Opposition has changed his mind on this matter and I welcome that change of mind," Gillard said today in Tasmania.
Tony Abbott, who discussed with his shadow ministers overnight and Thursday, said the coalition recognized the need to secure funding for DisabilityCare.
"We are prepared to consider supporting a modest increase in the Medicare levy to make sure this happens as soon as possible," he said earlier today. "We do want to see this come into the Parliament in this term."
He has previously said it would be better to fund the scheme through general government revenue. But today he emphasized the Coalition's bipartisan support for the scheme and conditional support for the proposed levy. "This is not a day to be quibbling over something which is very, very important to the future of our country," he added.
A rise of the Medicare levy to fund the Labor government's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was announced by Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan on Wednesday, saying voters would be asked to give her a mandate and "make their choice" in the Sept. 14 federal election.
However, Abbott has still not given his unconditional support to the levy, repeating his call for more detail. "It is important the Prime Minister comes clean with all the details," he said.
"If elected to government, the Coalition would resolve to ensure that the increase to the Medicare levy is a temporary increase and will be removed when the budget returns to strong surplus and the NDIS can be funded without it."
The levy will raise 3.2 billion dollars a year. And when it is fully operational in 2018-19, the scheme is estimated to cost 8 billion a year. Gillard has said the extra money out of the levy would have to come from federal, state and territory coffers.
