Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the second reading amendment to the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2011 moved earlier this afternoon by the Leader of the Opposition, because I think it is a prudent amendment which speaks for itself.

Here we go again talking about trust. I am still a relatively new member and already I have lost count of the number of times that I have come here to discuss legislation that represents an enormous breach of faith with the Australian people. It is quite depressing that here we are at the start of a new parliamentary year and already we are talking about another broken promise, another betrayal, another backflip.

Today we learnt in the House about some comments made back in 2007: 'Labor is committed to the maintenance of the private health insurance rebate, and I have given an iron-clad guarantee of that on a number of occasions. I grow tired of saying this. Labor is committed to the 30 per cent health insurance rebate.' Then what changed? But backflips are something that this government is used to. Before the election in 2010, on 12 August, the Treasurer on The 7.30 Report was asked about the issue of the carbon tax, and his response was:

We have made our position very clear. We have ruled it out.

On 15 August, on Meet the Press on Channel 10, a journalist asked the Treasurer:

Can you tell us exactly when Labor will apply a price to carbon?

Wayne Swan's response was:

Well, certainly what we reject is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a carbon tax … We certainly reject that.

They went on to do an absolute backflip. I have just come from the Main Committee chamber, where I was speaking on the appropriation bills, in which $3.6 billion has been appropriated for the clean energy legislation. That is just another example of the betrayal of this government.

The second reading amendment to this bill basically speaks to putting this legislation on hold so that it can be assessed with full diligence by the Australian public after an election. This is another example of the Labor Party trying to wiggle their way off the hook of their own economic incompetence. More to the point, we are also here again discussing a so-called health policy that might as well have come from the office of the Treasury. It is worth reflecting that, despite the main bill before the House being named the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2011, it has very little to do with fairness but everything to do with dollars—just like the alcopops tax or the attempt to slash the cataract rebate. This is Treasury policy dressed up as health reform.

This is the third time that the parliament has considered this legislation. It was introduced in the last parliament despite explicit promises at the 2007 election: 'Federal Labor has made it crystal clear that we are committed to retaining all the existing private health insurance rebates.' That was Minister Roxon on 26 September 2007.

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