Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her own statements with respect to the private health insurance rebate:

If I were minister for health in an elected government, it would be my duty to implement lock, stock and barrel … exactly what we had promised in the election campaign. That is your obligation.

And, 'When I make a commitment I actually intend to keep it.'

Will the Prime Minister guarantee that there will be no more changes to the means test for private health insurance under this government that she leads?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Gilmore is obviously referring to a statement made before the 2007 election. I suggest she refer to statements made before the 2010 election. If the member for Gilmore is saying that people in this parliament need to be judged against their 2007 statements, she was led into that election by then Prime Minister John Howard, who said:

A re-elected Coalition government will establish the world's most comprehensive emissions trading scheme in Australia, commencing no later than 2012. The scheme will be the primary mechanism for reducing Australia's emissions—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order relating to relevance: the Prime Minister was asked about her specific, ironclad guarantees. She was not asked about anybody else's statements. She can hardly be relevant unless she answers about her own promises to—

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will be directly relevant to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point is that, in 2012, the Liberal Party is on the run from John Howard. In 2012, the Liberal Party is stuck five years in the past. We are dealing with the circumstances of today. The circumstances of today require us, in the interests of fairness, to say to people who earn more money in our nation—$300,000, $350,000, $500,000, $1,000,000 a year—that they do not need their private health insurance subsidised by people who work part time, by people who work casually or by apprentices who earn $15,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 or $50,000 a year. That is what we stand for as a Labor government. That is what we brought to this parliament and that is what we are determined to get through.