Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

With this economic mismanagement we now have 15,000 people illegally arriving by boat, putting further pressure on the health system. Now the ALP want to do the same thing to private health insurance. They want to create a problem where there isn't one.

Of course, we also know that you just cannot trust this government. What we keep getting is more and more examples of this government's dishonesty—a phoney, whatever-it-takes approach by government. After all, it was this Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who said that there would be no carbon tax under a government she led—and yet we are set for the carbon tax to be introduced from 1 July. It was the same person, when the shadow minister for health, who said in the Weekend Australianin a letter to the editor, in her own writing:

The truth is I never had a secret plan to scrap the private health insurance rebate and, contrary to Mr Latham's diaries, do not support such a claim. For all Australians who want to have private health insurance the private health insurance rebate would have remained under a Labor government. I gave an iron-clad guarantee of that during the election. The difference between Tony 'rock-solid, iron-clad' Abbott and me is that, when I make an iron-clad commitment, I actually intend on keeping it.

In a further letter to the editor of the Courier Mailon 23 September 2004 she said:

Your correspondent Russell McGregor should have no concerns that Labor will erode or abolish the 30 per cent government rebate for private health insurance. Labor is committed to the maintenance of this rebate and I have given an iron-clad guarantee on that on a number of occasions.

That was from Julia Gillard, opposition health spokesperson. In fact, my favourite quote is: 'I grow tired of saying this: Labor is committed to the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate,' in a letter to the editor of the Hobart Mercury.

It is just not the Prime Minister, who was then the shadow health minister who gave such guarantees. We only need to look at the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, who, as Leader of the Opposition in 2007, wrote to Dr Armitage of the Australian Health Insurance and said:

Thank you for your letter of 29 October 2007 seeking clarification on Federal Labor's policy regarding private health insurance. Both my Shadow Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, and I have made it clear on many occasions this year that Federal Labor is committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate and the 35 and 40 per cent rebates for older Australians.

Federal Labor will also maintain Lifetime Health Cover and the Medicare Levy Surcharge.

Labor will maintain the existing framework for regulating private health insurance, including the process for approval of premium increases. Zero per cent premium adjustment is not Labor policy.

I understand Nicola Roxon's office has also confirmed with you that Federal Labor has no plans to require private health insurance funds to make equivalent payments to public hospitals for patients who elect to be treated as private patients.

I trust this allays your concerns. Federal Labor values its relationship with the private health insurance sector and we look forward to continuing this regardless of the outcome on November 24.

Yours sincerely

Kevin Rudd

Federal Labor Leader

Member for Griffith

Nicola Roxon, then Minister for Health and Ageing, was quoted in the Age on 24 February 2009 as saying:

The Government is firmly committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates …

Yet less than three months later, on 12 May 2009, the insurance rebate changes were announced in the budget.

This is a government that says one thing and does another. This is a government that finds a solution and creates a problem—over and over again. We are into 2012 and it is clear that this government neither respects nor values its relationship with the people of Australia who are paying for private health insurance and contributing to support a reduction in pressure on the public health system. All this government seems to want to do, in fact its whole agenda, is to claw back money from working families to prop up its failed economic management position, a position that has created record debt.

This is a desperate move by a desperate government that has squandered the dollars of millions of Australians on wasted programs like the insulation tragedy and the school halls rip-off. I say to you, Madam Deputy Speaker Livermore, to each and every Labor member in this place and to the Independents: the health of our fellow Australians is far more important than all of the other programs that this government has wasted money on. This government will see, under its stewardship, a blow-out in the waiting lists in the public health system. This government will see, under its stewardship, private hospitals close because of a lack of patients. This government will see, under its stewardship, the health standards of the people of Australia deteriorate because it mismanaged the economy and saw as a sacrifice those hard-working Australians who take out private health insurance and who reduce the pressure on the public system. It should be the government's agenda, as it was under the previous coalition government and as it was stated to be by the previous Labor opposition, to support private health insurance to make it affordable for working families. That is why I call on the Independents to refuse to support this legislation that will hurt the people in their constituencies. I reject these bills as presented to the House.

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