Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to join in the debate on this matter of public importance. I remind members of what the MPI is for: it is an opportunity for the Labor Party—the opposition—to raise an issue of importance for that day. As a way of gaining momentum, it is usually preceded in question time by the opposition asking a series of questions on issues relating to that matter of public importance. What we have had today from the opposition shows us that this matter of public of importance is not one that the ALP believes in; rather, it was the member for Gellibrand’s turn to get up and raise an MPI. During question time, the opposition raised no questions on any of the issues the member for Gellibrand spoke about; rather, the opposition went down various rabbit holes on other issues, trying to deflect their possible guilt in what has taken place in Western Australian and its link to Canberra.

It was unfortunate that the member for Gellibrand spent the first seven or eight minutes in her MPI getting personal about the Minister for Health and Ageing. It is very unfortunate that she did that rather than sticking to the substance of the MPI. She made the comment, ‘We don’t want to live in a country where people cannot afford health care.’ Nobody wants to live in a country where people cannot afford health care. One of the things this government has done through its tax cuts, through its rebates, through its Medicare safety net and through the increased ability for people to have a job is provide people with the ability to pay and to earn a living.

But, no, the member for Gellibrand ignores all of that and instead gets very personal about the health minister, saying, ‘What is he doing when he is all sweaty, running in his tracksuit around Parliament House?’ I will give the member for Gellibrand a hint. Just ask the member for Parramatta and the member for Oxley what the minister does as a way of making a contribution. Not only has the minister, in his portfolio, responded from a policy perspective; he has also responded with conviction by using his feet, his muscles and his energy to help those who need support. I urge the member for Gellibrand to put on her tracksuit and in April join the member for Oxley, the member for Parramatta and members on this side of the House in a charity ride which takes place every year. Over the last nine years, the minister has raised over $1 million through his Pollie Pedal ride. Over $1 million has been raised by the minister through his efforts in this charity ride, and most of it has gone to the very issue that the member for Gellibrand says the minister has no concern about—diabetes.

Member for Gellibrand, I look forward to your lycras, your bike and you pumping out those kilometres between Brisbane and Sydney this year. No doubt if you, as the shadow minister for health, participated with the minister for health in riding down the highway between Brisbane and Sydney, we would raise a lot of money. Guess where that money goes? It goes to the Millennium Foundation for medical research. The minister for health is a man who has delivered not only on policy but also as an individual. To see that he has delivered on policy, we only need to look at the response on Gardasil and on Herceptin for breast cancer; the rotavirus is being considered. When we look at the child immunisation rates, we see that the number of children who are now immunised has increased from 50 per cent to 90 per cent. In the last 24 hours, the minister for health made an announcement that a new centre for gynaecological cancers will be established. This is a minister who has responded in all sorts of ways.

Let us also go to the substance of the MPI: the cost of living pressures facing working families. I say to the member for Ballarat and the member for Gellibrand that one of the things that Australian families can do today which they were not able to do prior to 1996 is have a job to be able to pay for the cost of living. Most people are experiencing interest rates which are far lower than the rates the ALP left us with back in 1990s. It was not a matter then of housing affordability being beyond the reach of most Australians—one of the subjects of the member for Ballarat’s contribution. Back then, interest rates were such that housing affordability was beyond the reach of all Australians. We have seen interest rates come down to levels that the ALP could only dream of ever achieving—and of course they will not, because they do not have the ability to manage an economy which creates such sustained increases in wages and jobs growth and which makes sure that people have the ability to participate in the workforce.

The facts are that since March last year, when Work Choices came in, which those on the other side thought was going to be the end of the family, we have seen over 241,000 new jobs created. Most of those have been full-time jobs and over 100,000 have been jobs for women, particularly those who have returned to the workforce. These are people who can now participate in Australian society in a real way and make a contribution to providing bread and a meal for their families when they go home.

Wages have increased by somewhere around 18 per cent since 1996. The earnings of employees have also gone up in real terms since Work Choices came in. The member for Ballarat was going on about the ABS figures from yesterday. I am not sure whether we are on the same page. The figures I have here are from May 2006—which, remember, is only a couple of months after Work Choices came in; yet those on the other side like to make out that it is for the full year. Those ABS employee earning hours survey figures show that full-time employees under registered individual agreements such as AWAs earn on average $511 per week more than award wages. Part-time employees—and we know most part-time employees tend to be females who are re-entering the workforce after an absence from it—under registered individual agreements earn on average $81.70 per week more than award wages. And all employees under collective agreements earn on average $404 more than employees on award wages. So, far from the doom and gloom that they predicted—and are now trying to say has actually come to pass—the record is one of growth in employment and also increased ability to earn a wage which is commensurate with someone’s contribution to the workforce and which is increasing as we go.

On a number of fronts this MPI is discredited. The private health insurance rebate and the Medicare safety net, which the minister has certainly gone through at length, are there to help address the pressures that are faced by working families. Yet what is the Labor Party’s response? We still do not know whether or not they are going to maintain the rebate on private health insurance. They criticised last week’s announcement of a 4½ per cent increase in premiums, but until they come out and state what their policy is we have to assume it is the previous policy that they had, which was to get rid of the private health insurance rebate completely.

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