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

I thank the member for Lyons for his question because I know that the electorate that he represents has very many people on low and middle incomes who do not fancy subsidising the private health insurance of millionaires, of CEOs and of those of us who are here in parliament when we are well able to pay for our own private health insurance. The Rudd government announced changes at the budget because we believe that it is possible for us to make the private health insurance rebate (1) more fair and (2) more sustainable.

It might be of interest for those opposite to know that spending on the current rebate is growing so quickly that it is expected to double as a proportion of health expenditure by 2046. This is clearly unsustainable—even more so in light of the global financial crisis. We believe that it is a fairer use of taxpayer resources to make sure that secretaries, nurses, Hansard reporters and attendants in the chamber do not have to pay for the private health insurance of members in this place who are well able to pay for it themselves.

This is not our money we are talking about. This is taxpayers’ money and we need to ensure that every health dollar is targeted to those who need its support most. But this morning, as the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and others have commented, I noticed that the shadow Treasurer vowed to cut $14 billion in spending not even 24 hours after his own party blew a hole in the budget of $1.9 billion. It really shows that, once you put the blowtorch to the Liberal Party, they cannot stand for anything, they cannot be fiscally responsible and they do not have the ticker to make any tough decisions. We can see a clear pattern emerging from the Liberal Party. When they are given a choice about who they are going to back, it is the very highly paid specialists, the health insurers or the distillers. They will stand with everybody possible who earns a high income rather than stand with the community and sensible health policy. We intend to reintroduce this bill into the parliament. We believe that it is fairer, we believe that it is financially sustainable, and we expect a more responsible approach from the opposition when we do reintroduce it.

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