Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government's private health insurance rebate changes will help build a stronger and fairer health system for all Australians?

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

I thank the member for La Trobe for her question. Earlier today the House of Representatives passed the government's changes to the private health insurance rebate and there is every reason to believe that these changes will pass through the Senate. These changes were first brought to the parliament in 2009. We sought to secure these changes then and took this plan to the 2010 election and said, as the government, that we wanted to work to change the private health insurance rebate in the interest of fairness and in the interest of sustainability. Today the House of Representatives has given a tick to fairness and a tick to sustainability. It is clearly unfair to ask low-income Australians who cannot afford private health insurance themselves to subsidise the private health insurance of people who are many times better off than they are—clearly unfair.

Mr Christensen interjecting—

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

The honourable member for Dawson will remain silent for the balance of the Prime Minister's answer.

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

It is the proposition of the opposition that Australians who own so little that they cannot afford private health insurance for themselves should be subsidising the private health insurance of millionaires or billionaires. There is no surprise in that because the opposition have never seen a tax dollar they did not want to give to a billionaire if they possibly could.

This is also about sustainability. We all know that health costs are growing. We are investing more and more in health and that is appropriate because Australians want to see more doctors, more nurses and more investment in public hospitals. They want to see better cancer treatment. They understand that with innovation and with the ageing—

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

The Prime Minister will return to the question under consideration.

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

Thank you very much. I am talking about sustainability in the private health insurance rebate. They understand that with those health demands we have to wisely invest every health dollar, which is why engaging in this means-testing of the private health insurance rebate is appropriate and without these changes it is estimated that it will cost $100 billion over the next 40 years.

I note today that the Leader of the Opposition has committed himself to reversing these changes, adding to his $70 billion black hole—$70 billion now and counting. Well it is not right by sustainability and it is not right by fairness. The one thing we know is that the Leader of the Opposition cannot possibly make that budget add up.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister indicate where in the Prime Minister's election Press Club speech, where in the leaders debate, where in the campaign launch speech, where in the Prime Minister's election announcement or where in the ALP's official health policy documents from the 2010 election the government's plans for cutting the private health insurance rebate are outlined?

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

I remind the member who asked the question that this parliament was dealing with these matters before the 2010 election campaign. There would not have been anyone aware of that parliamentary debate, which of course got a lot of publicity, who would not have known that it was the intention of the government to have a means test on private health insurance. The Leader of the Opposition is saying, 'Well, it did not get through the parliament.' That is true: it did not get through the Senate as it was then configured. This government brought its policy intention to the House of Representatives and to the Senate and made it very, very clear that that was the policy of the government. I would say to the member opposite that during the election campaign—

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

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: it was a very simple question. Where in the election campaign was the Prime Minister up-front with the Australian people about her intention to break a promise?

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

The Prime Minister will address the substance of the question.

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

To the Leader of the Opposition's point of order: during the election campaign this government did something that the opposition did not. We filed our costings.

Opposition members interjecting—

The opposition did not do that because they had at that stage an $11 billion black hole. They knew their figures could not add up, so they took their figures to an accountancy firm and they tried to say that that made it all add up. That accountancy firm has now been implicated in professional breaches. The one thing that they did not do is submit their costings to the Treasury, because they knew that they were engaged in the height of recklessness when it came to spending taxpayers' dollars. As a result—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The Prime Minister will resume her seat.

Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister update the House on the latest information about the state of the private health insurance industry? What does this mean for the government's reform of the health system to make it fairer for ordinary working Australians?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for her question. She is a member who is passionately committed to seeing better health services for people in her electorate. She knows every taxpayers' dollar we raise has to be spent in the best and most effective way. I welcome the passing through the House of Representatives of the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill and cognate bills this morning. The passing of this legislation comes as new figures released by the Private Health Insurance Administration Council show that more Australians are covered by private health insurance now than at any other time in the past 36 years.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order!

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since this government came to office, more than a million people—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Minister, please pause. The House will return to order and the minister will be heard in silence.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. More than a million people have joined private health insurance since this government came to office. These new figures for last year show that the industry recorded a record profit of $461 million before tax for the December quarter and that the year's profit from December 2010 to December 2011 was a record $1.27 billion. The industry is strong and the industry is healthy and the industry will stay strong despite the scare campaign of those opposite.

You would remember that the member for North Sydney said in 2008 that hundreds of thousands of people would drop out of private health insurance, when Labor took a decision that low-income earners should not be penalised for not having private health insurance. He said that hundreds of thousands would drop out. And what happened? 800,000 extra people have joined private health insurance since that time. He was wrong then and he is wrong now. This is a win for low- and middle-income earners.

Mr Christensen interjecting—

It means that the bank teller on $50,000 a year will no longer subsidise the private health insurance—

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

The minister will pause. I have asked all honourable members to hear the minister in silence. The honourable member for Dawson will remove himself from the chamber under the provisions of standing order 94(a) for one hour.

The member for Dawson then left the chamber.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It means that the bank teller on $50,000 a year will no longer subsidise the private health insurance of the bank executive on $500,000 and the bank's CEO on $5 million—

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

What a load of rubbish!

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

Order! The minister will pause. The honourable member for Bowman will also leave the chamber under the provisions of standing order 94(a). He is fortunate that I have not named him for defying the chair.

The member for Bowman then left the chamber.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government is investing record amounts into our health system. That record investment needs to be targeted in a way that makes the biggest difference. The private health insurance rebate would have sucked up $100 billion over the next 40 years. The Leader of the Opposition says that he is going to restore that, when he can, as an article of faith of the opposition. Is it really an article of faith to spend the hard-earned tax dollars of ordinary Australians subsidising his private health insurance and mine, or is it an aspiration? (Time expired)