SPEECH - MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS: THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE SCHEME - CANBERRA - WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY 2017

24 May 2017

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In 2007 Prime Minister Rudd appointed me parliamentary secretary for disabilities.

 

I thought I’d seen unfairness in workplaces as a union rep.

 

But nothing prepared me for the second-class deal that Australians with disability and their carers received.

 

Jenny Macklin, Bruce Bonyhady and I – and thousands of people with disability and their carers - designed and campaigned for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

 

I never ran into the Member for Wentworth at the meetings we were campaigning at.

 

Now, the Turnbull Government is seeking to re-write history and frighten Australians with a disability and their carers. 

 

Labor has a plan that is better and fairer plan for the Budget, which raises $4.5 billion more.

 

We reject the notion that the only way to protect the NDIS is to raise taxes on working and middle class Australians.

 

Today, I offer the Government a fairer, better way:

 

-      Don’t give millionaires $19 billion tax cut

-      Don’t give large corporations a $65 billion tax cut

-      Remove the concessions worth $37 billion for property investors

 

And if you want to try and raise taxes on 10 million ordinary people, you’ll have to come through us - you'll have to come through Labor.

 

The last bloke who sat in your chair thought he could – look where it got him.