House debates
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Questions without Notice
Private Health Insurance
2:45 pm
Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House how the government’s support for private health insurance is taking the pressure off our public hospital system? Is the minister aware of claims that private health insurance costs might rise? What is the government’s response?
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Ms Roxon interjecting
Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Ms Roxon interjecting
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Gellibrand is warned!
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
If the member for Gellibrand had a policy, rather than shrieking across the table, she would certainly be doing better about establishing her credibility.
Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Ms King interjecting
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I know how important this is to the member for Macquarie, because 75,000 people in his electorate have private health insurance, and they are relying on the Howard government to keep it affordable for them. Thanks to the policies of the Howard government, some nine million Australians now have the security and choice that come with private health cover. This is nearly three million more than under the Keating government, and it includes one million people earning less than $20,000 a year. All of these people have the potential to avoid state Labor’s public hospital waiting list.
Yesterday, the member for Gellibrand said that costs might rise under the government’s planned changes to health insurance legislation. Let me say that Labor are the past masters of premium increases. In 1987, premiums went up 19 per cent under Labor. In 1992, premiums went up 17 per cent under Labor. On average, under Labor, premiums increased by 11 per cent every year compared with just 5.6 per cent since 1996. Let us make it very clear: the member for Gellibrand is not trying to improve private health insurance; she is trying to sabotage it. She once told this parliament that the government should stop ‘pouring enormous amounts of money into private health insurance cover and instead put that money into public facilities’. We are in the mood, it seems, opposite, to repudiate statements, and I ask the member for Gellibrand: will she now repudiate that previous statement of hers? Indeed, I say to the Leader of the Opposition: on the subject of private health insurance, as on so many other topics, will the real Kevin Rudd please stand up? Does he still think, as he once told this parliament, that private health insurance is about the Americanisation of our health system? One day he was a mere staffer; the next day he is the de facto Premier of Queensland. One day he is the philosopher prince of Labor; the next minute, he reads comics for his inspiration.
Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Tuckey interjecting
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order with regard to standing order 104.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I have been listening carefully to the minister, and I am sure he will come back to the question.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I am asking the Leader of the Opposition to resolve where he really stands on private health insurance. One day he is not a socialist and he never ever has been and, the next day, he has been a Christian socialist since Keir Hardy’s time. When will this enigma—
Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order: the minister is now defying your ruling.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
One minute he thinks that the coalition has tried to commandeer God; the next minute he thinks that Jesus is standing for a Labor Party seat. When will this enigma finally resolve itself?
Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister was asked whether he is aware of claims that private health insurance will rise. I ask you to draw him back to the question he was asked.
David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I call the minister and ask him to come back to the question.
Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I certainly will, Mr Speaker. Let me just say to the Leader of the Opposition: trying to be all things to everyone will not work. On private health insurance, as on so many other topics, he needs to come clean and say what he really believes. If he does not have a clear position on private health insurance, he does not have any credibility in his bid to lead this nation.