John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security) Share this | Hansard source

Should the government make savings from this venture, they will only be forking them out again, putting them back, because, without doubt, wherever you are in Australia this is going to overload the public hospital system even more. This is a cost-shifting measure by the Labor government. In the 2007 election, shadow health minister Nicola Roxon, now the Attorney-General, declared:

… Federal Labor has made it crystal clear that we are committed to retaining all of the existing Private Health Insurance rebates …

I notice there is quiet over the other side of the table now.

This is yet another broken promise by an incompetent Labor government which is hell-bent on punishing ordinary Australians. They are punishing the ordinary Australians who value their health and are willing to take responsibility for their own health care. But this is not a government that encourages private enterprise or responsibility. These are the people who know—they have a sense of obligation—that if they can afford it they should do it; if they can afford health care they should take on that responsibility, wherever possible, and leave public beds for public patients.

I will vote against this legislation and I certainly hope those on the cross bench do their duty to their constituents and do the same.

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