Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has one of the best health systems in the world, largely due to the balance which exists between the public and private health sectors. This Labor government is willing to put our health system at risk—grave risk. As of December 2010 more than half the population had some form of private health cover and during the course of the year to April 2011 private health funds had paid $12.4 billion in benefits towards the health care of 11.7 million Australians who held some form of private health cover. In the next financial year the Labor government proposes that individuals earning $83,000 or more per annum or families earning $166,000 or more will have their rebate for private health insurance decreased. Some people will receive no rebate at all. This is essentially a way of taxing the rich without calling it a tax. It is socialism in its purest form. Although Labor will make out that it is no modern-day Robin Hood taking from the rich to give to the poor, this legislation is going to have significant impacts on everyone, no matter what their financial situation is. Furthermore, it is yet another example of the Prime Minister saying one thing and doing another. Whilst shadow minister for health the now Prime Minister unequivocally promised, 'The private health insurance rebate is here to stay in its current form.' Mind you, the now Prime Minister also stated unequivocally just prior to the 2010 election, not long after her rise to power, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

When these proposed changes were first announced in 2009—

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