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

Of course, the other issue in the member’s question which it is impossible for me to ignore is this concept that we are forcing the community to do anything. In fact, what we have delivered is some real choice to those people who are doing it tough to make a decision about how they might use an increasingly tight budget—something that those opposite never did when they were in government, leaving the threshold exactly where it was. So I am not going to take a lecture from the member opposite about choice—something they pretend they are about—when this measure is something that has returned choice to those working families and singles who are doing it tough. We are proud of this measure. We will look closely at any requests that come in at the end of the year and we will not look favourably on any that use this as an excuse for an increase in premiums.

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