Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The foundations of this motion are based on a falsehood. We know that, under this government, funding has gone up considerably, from $13.3 billion in 2013-14 to a record $22.7 billion in 2020-21. It's an increase. It's kind of more than a little bit of an increase in nominal terms. In fact, it's about a 70 per cent increase in funding. So the very basis of this motion is a falsehood.

We know that, yes, we are moving and adjusting our spending in line with the lived experience of Australians. We have an ageing population. People consume more of their healthcare expenses in the latter stages of their life, and we need to make sure that we care for people in that moment of vulnerability. That's what's been shown up in bulk-billing rates. We have had an increase from 82.2 per cent, the last time the opposition was in government, to 86.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2018. That's quite a significant increase as well. So there has been an increase in bulk-billing rates, we are matching the funding and we are putting the best interests of Australians first. These are all foreign concepts to the opposition.

What we're doing also is backing Australians to take care of themselves. Imagine that! The very foundation of Liberal policy should always be that people who can stand on their own two feet should do so, not just so they can take care of themselves and not be a burden on others but, more critically, so they're in the best situation to help others. What do we have as part of our policy? We have an active encouragement and incentivisation for young Australians to take up private health insurance so they can take care of themselves.

That's the sort of thing that most governments would be fundamentally proud of. In fact, even if oppositions had introduced such policies and wanted to defend them, they would traditionally be proud of them—but not those opposite. Instead, they simply confect outrage because their interest is the politics of health rather than the human outcomes of health. You can say that, in every minute of every hour of every day of this Turnbull Liberal government, we will stand for Australians and by Australians and their health care.

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