Finance Minister Mathias Cormann insists next week's federal budget will show the National Disability Insurance Scheme is fully funded without the need for an increase in the Medicare levy.
Global credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings on Wednesday raised concerns in its latest report on Australia, saying that the Turnbull government's decision to scrap the Medicare levy increase while committing to fully funding the NDIS "poses a challenge" for the forecast surplus in 2020/21.
"I'm sure when people see the numbers next week they'll share our judgement that the NDIS is fully funded without the need for the Medicare levy increase," Senator Cormann told AAP, ahead of Tuesday's handing down of the 2018/19 federal budget.
In any case, he said, the originally proposed 0.5 percentage point levy increase had no chance of getting through the Senate and just having it sitting on the books without being able to collect the revenue doesn't help the budget position.
Despite this concern over the budget outlook, Fitch confirmed Australia's top-tier triple-A rating.
"It's good to see that the credit rating agencies continue to have confidence in the performance of the Australian economy and the Australian government," Senator Cormann said.
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