The article on the front page of the Daily Telegraph calls Nick Xenophon a "self-absorbed politician" from the "backwater town" of Adelaide.
The Sydney tabloid was criticising the South Australian senator for threatening to use his team of three senators to block the social security cuts in the Turnbull government's omnibus bill.
In the latest attempt to stop it from being thwarted in the upper house, the government has linked the measures to a promise of funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Senator Xenophon says bashing his home state is unlikely to make him change his mind.
"Abusing South Australia is not going to work with me. Calling us 'grease with two AFL teams' is pretty laughable. And if I can remind all of you, whichever state you're from, we are all part of the commonwealth of Australia and this is about making the right decision in the national interest."
Senator Xenophon says he's still negotiating with the government over the bill, and has not ruled out supporting it if changes are made.
He's also raised his own suggestion for plugging what the government says is a revenue hole in the funding of the NDIS with the idea of a one-percentage-point increase in the Medicare levy for high income earners.
That proposal landed him on the front page of the Telegraph's national stablemate, The Australian.
Senator Xenophon rejected that story, too, for suggesting he wants to increase the levy for everyone, not just the wealthy.
"Suggesting I want households to pay $2,600 per year is just plain silly, it it wrong. What I said was that for high income earners, the Medicare levy surcharge should be considered as part of the mix, and that may involve having a slight increase in that surcharge. And I've said there might be a case for a tiny increase in the Medicare levy for those on higher incomes. To suggest a on per cent slug on all households, including low income households, is never what my position was."
The Medicare levy is a two per cent tax paid by most Australians on their taxable income, while the surcharge is imposed for those on higher incomes who do not have private health insurance.
Asked if he might support his crossbench colleague's idea, Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm was unequivocal.
"No... I have not seen a tax I wouldn't cut. The Medicare levy is just a tax under another name."
Neither Labor nor the Coalition have expressed support for raising the levy further.
The Turnbull government is pressing ahead with its efforts to convince the crossbench to pass its omnibus savings bill through the Senate.
The bill is unlikely to pass in its current form, with the Greens, Labor and the Nick Xenophon senators all indicating they would vote it down.
Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch says he'll continue negotiations with the government and could support the bill if some cuts are reversed.
"I've said before that it's oranges and lemons. I've got some problems with the delayed start for teenage welfare. Some other things in there too I've got to look at, cutting pensions. So heaps of work to do. I know it sounds corny, I said well - they call it the omnibus, well there's about 50 seats on the omnibus and I think three, four, five or ten of them may well be removed."
The government has ruled out reducing capital gains tax concessions as an alternative path to budget repair.
A report in the Australian Financial Review claimed the government was considering a move to halve the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount on property sales.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says no such plan exists.
Share
