Alan Cadman (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Is the minister aware of claims that privatisation is hurtful in the health sector? What is the government’s response?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can assure the member for Mitchell that Labor’s scaremongering is wrong; it is dead wrong. Privatisation will be as good for Medibank Private as it has been—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Burke interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chisholm is warned!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

for Qantas and as it has been for the Commonwealth Bank. That is why this sale has been deferred but certainly not abandoned—because privatisation of Medibank Private will be good for policyholders, it will be good for taxpayers and it will be good for the health sector as a whole. Let me quote the chief executive of NIB, a gentleman called Mark Fitzgibbon, who said:

The pressure on premiums will be reduced if Medibank goes private. We expect much more aggressive competition from a privately owned Medibank.

Then, of course, there was Francis Sullivan, the chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, who said:

... Medibank Private has outgrown its government parentage.

…            …            …

What is needed is to open the market to new players who bring serious competitive tension and innovation to the health system.

There was even a time when the Leader of the Opposition himself supported privatisation. In 1995, in this chamber, the Leader of the Opposition said:

We as a government have a considerable rate of success in relation to privatisation. We have two airlines undergoing privatisation.

…            …            …

... We are getting the airports in place. We have privatised ... the Commonwealth Bank. We have privatised the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and the bulk of defence industries.

He went on to say:

The total number of privatisation projects under the Fraser-Howard government amounted to Belconnen Mall ...

He even mocked the coalition for being insufficiently in favour of privatisation. How times have changed, and how the Leader of the Opposition has so totally shrunk in stature since those days. Let us make it absolutely clear: privatisation of Medibank Private will no more raise health insurance premiums than the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank raised interest rates and the privatisation of Qantas caused airfares to rise.

There are two conclusions to be drawn from the Labor Party’s cheap populism on this point. The first is that they are still socialists at heart. They absolutely hate the private sector. The second is that the Leader of the Opposition is a much less principled politician now—

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Swan interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley is warned!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

than he was when he had real leaders like Bob Hawke and Paul Keating to tell him what was right.