Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

It is important to be able to answer this question when those opposite are trying to pretend that after 11 years they suddenly care about public hospitals, after pulling a billion dollars out of public hospitals. We have started reinvesting. We have started reinvesting in hospitals, but still the opposition will not support tax relief for hundreds of thousands of Australians. When the Medicare surcharge levy was first introduced, about 165,000 people paid this tax. The member for Higgins has not bothered to be here for the debate today in question time. It may be that he is embarrassed about some of these figures. At the time, the then Treasurer said that he thought that this was a levy that the government hoped no-one was going to have to pay. In fact, when we came to office 465,000 people were paying this tax that the previous government pretended no-one was going to have to pay. We do not make any apologies for providing relief for nearly half a million Australians.

When those opposite pretend that there is some science in the figures that were set by the previous government, I thought it might be worth informing the House how these figures were brought about. The Liberals have been saying that there was some science in these figures. They want to pretend that the impact is going to be disastrous in all sorts of areas, so you would have thought from this argument that there was some logic to the $50,000 and $100,000 thresholds. I can inform the House, thanks to some fine investigative journalism by Andrew Tillett and Andrew Probyn, of the logic behind the introduction of the Medicare surcharge levy. In an interview for the West Australian recently, the former health minister Dr Michael Wooldridge explained exactly how these thresholds, which we are hoping to change and are being blocked by the Liberals opposite, were determined. Dr Wooldridge said:

I think the numbers in the end were negotiated with Senator Harradine - it was over a bottle of Jameson’s whiskey late at night ...

That is what I call evidence based policy—obviously no reason to change.

But there was more. Dr Wooldridge went on to reveal that the Liberals had not given a moment’s thought about the consequences of this levy and those thresholds in 10 years time. Dr Wooldridge said:

We were happy to successfully get through 12 months, let alone worry about a problem in 10 years time or more.

Fancy that—a Liberal thinking about short-term politics! We are planning and investing for the future, and those opposite are looking at short-term politics. We do not make any apologies for wanting to provide tax relief for half a million Australians, and it is about time that the Liberals got out of the way and let us do it.

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