Malcolm Turnbull has seized on internal divisions in the Labor party to argue the opposition should pass the proposed 0.5% Medicare levy increase to fund the national disability insurance scheme.
The prime minister used an early media event in Canberra, and then followed up in question time, with efforts to embarrass Labor over an internal argument about the Medicare levy increase.
He told reporters in Canberra on Monday that Labor should follow its “correct instincts” and pass the measure outlined in the budget.
“How can we, in good conscience, not fund the national disability insurance scheme?” he said. “Every Australian benefits from it. It is fair that all Australians contribute to it.”
The government wants the increase to apply to taxpayers once they earn more than $21,000 but Labor last week resolved to support the increase in the levy only for the top two tax brackets, for people on incomes over $87,000 – a decision that costs $400m over the forward estimates.
The decision was made in the Labor leadership group in budget week, not the shadow cabinet, and the leadership group was split.
Some Labor figures are concerned the opposition’s proposal costs too much, thereby crowding out other priorities. There is also concern that if the proposed increase is applied only to higher income earners the levy is no longer universal, and that offends an important policy principle.
The government – which often battles its internal divisions in public – used a chunk of question time on Monday to focus attention on the Labor divisions.
The social services minister, Christian Porter, said if Bill Shorten wouldn’t listen to the reservations of his colleagues, perhaps he would listen to his own counsel.
Porter pointed out when Shorten was a minister in the Labor government, and he was urging the then opposition to agree with the 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy Labor proposed at the time to fund the NDIS, he suggested at that time opponents of the change regarded “getting into power as more important than your life”.
“So we now say to you, leader of the opposition, all of us say to you, if you do not support this 0.5% increase, you need to look into the face of people ... and you need to say: “I regard me as getting into power as more important than your life”,” Porter said.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, also goaded the Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, declaring: “He is in there for a game change.”
“[Albanese] will go straight past the member for Sydney and the member for Watson and the member for Rankin.”
Pointing at Shorten, Joyce said: “You know where he will stop? He will stop at your station. He will stop in your chair.”
Earlier in the day, Turnbull used the internal debate to argue Labor should just back the government’s proposal, which is forecast to raise $8.2bn over the forward estimates.
“We will be asking the House to support what Australians overwhelmingly know is right and just, and that is to fully fund the national disability insurance scheme by increasing the Medicare levy by 0.5% from 2019,” he said.
“Now, a few years ago Labor, and indeed Bill Shorten, asked Australians to contribute to the national disability insurance scheme by a 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy.
“It wasn’t enough, of course, but the Coalition responded in a bipartisan way and supported it.
“We are asking Labor to do the same again.”
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, used a speech to the Victorian conference of the Labor party at the weekend to make a pitch for unity.
He warned the opposition faced a “tough fight” to win the next election: “We can take nothing for granted and we cannot afford to be complacent.”
