Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. We are moving into the inane here. There is a significant history here of a tax on private health cover, and there is a complete record of commitments that have been made by that side of politics never to touch the private health rebate. Why are we here today if we could believe a single word that came out of the mouths of the leaders of that side of politics? The truth is we cannot. The truth is it has always had a vendetta against people who care for and fund their health cover, and we think that is highly regrettable.

I can appreciate if those over there fundamentally do not like people who want to pay for their own health cover. That is okay; that is something for their caucus and their policy. But there are 10 million Australians quietly taking notes on what is happening tonight, and they will not forget. They will not forget that at every opportunity those opposite took a chance to reduce private health cover and to make it way less affordable. I know that premiums go up every year, and that is simply a reflection of increasing health costs. But you need to be able to look your own government in the eye and say, 'If you won't touch private health cover, give me the confidence that you won't do a double deal on us.' But in fact that is not what has occurred. What has occurred is an attack on a 30 per cent rebate with means-testing. We have now seen an attack on Lifetime Health Cover, all of this in the spurious and ultimately futile attempt to run a budget surplus.

The great question is: now that you have waved the white flag on a budget surplus, why are we persisting with these minute changes to try to save a little bit of money off the people who pay for their own private health cover? I would be happy to contemplate some of these propositions if those opposite were running the public health system better, but the great fear of most Australians now is that is not the case. The COAG Reform Council has clearly said that there have been no improvements in waiting times for operations over the period of this government. And the government will tell you that is because some other party removed some of their funding. Isn't it possible to write up an agreement that locks in those jurisdictions? No, these agreements were not sophisticated enough, and this is a federal government that has basically been seeing additional money being committed with no difference for Australians.

The great concern here when you are taking private health cover is this: I am hoping not to have to leave my footprints in the public system; I hope to fend for myself, pay my own way and be more self-reliant. That is something that needs to be supported. It always will be by this side of politics. There are 10.7 million Australians who look to us to fight for those who fend for themselves. And of course we support a decent public hospital system. Of course we support workers on the front line. But the latest extraordinary proposition is that we have 3,000 people now working in Medicare Locals around the country, of which apparently 80 per cent of them are front line. What is the definition of 'front line'? This is money that is being devoted to Medicare Locals that potentially is meant to be improving primary health care. I would like to see evidence of where the money that is being collected here, in this attempt by the government to steal from the pockets of those who are privately covered, is going to be invested, because there is no cogent and convincing explanation that that money is leading to either better public health or hospitals.

In conclusion, this is a government that tends to mess up everything it tinkers with. It is a government that promises not to do something and then does it. And it is a government that, fundamentally, inherited a series of challenges that all health systems have. In the end we may well see by 14 September, in a retrospective look at what has changed in our health system, plenty of administrative changes, plenty of health reform by press release, but ultimately this health system will carry on. The same challenges it had in 2007 it is still vexed with in 2013. The only difference will be life will be far tougher for those who have attempted to pay their own way and fund their own private health cover.

See this speech in context