Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

Who is correct though, Senator? Are you going to arbitrate on that? Are you now a judge? There is only one place where this is going to be resolved, I believe, and that is going to be in the courts. That is the sort of environment we are in. There is confusion about the legality of whether or not we can sell the entity and yet this government is progressing and pushing on with this ideologically driven desire to divest itself of Medibank Private Ltd.

I have to make the very obvious comment also that it was okay for Senator Minchin to table a piece of legal advice on Monday that supports his position. He was very happy to do that. Senator Ray, who sits behind me—and I take great heed of what Senator Ray mentions in the chamber—asked what sort of precedent we are undertaking here. I think that is an important question that this chamber now has before it. We have a precedent of providing certain pieces of legal advice. Senator Minchin was happy to table the legal advice that supports his position, but he is not happy to table the scoping study. What conclusion can we draw? Of course, he will table something that supports his point of view, but you have to ask why he will not table other things. If he cannot table all of the scoping study, why can’t he table the principles that underpinned the work that was undertaken in the scoping study?

The third part of the motion that we are dealing with today goes to the point that private health insurance premiums have in fact risen some 40 per cent since 2001. Most of us here will remember the debate in 2001, when the government said—and actually promised—that the introduction of the 30 per cent rebate on private health insurance would put ‘downward pressure on private health insurance premiums’. In the last five years we have seen a 40 per cent rise in private health insurance premiums. I am sure that people on the other side will stand up and say that that is because of advances in technology, increased demand and an ageing population; there will be a whole range of reasons why private health insurance premiums have risen by 40 per cent. But I am afraid that promise has not been met by this government.

We have a situation now where the Minister for Health and Ageing approves every application from the private health insurance sector for increases in their premiums. When Senator Patterson was minister we did have an opportunity and there was a measure through which a minister could refuse applications for increases in private health insurance rebates. In fact, to her credit, she did so. But not once has this minister not approved applications for premium rises.

We also have to think about what impact this will have on families. We know that there will be increases in private health insurance rebates. This is at the same time that we are going to have increases in interest rates. We also have increases, of course, in petrol prices. Now we have the triple whammy—interest rates, petrol prices and now the private health insurance rebate.

The final element of this motion that we are debating today calls on the federal government to abandon its plans to sell off Medibank Private. The motivation of the Liberal Party and the National Party in selling Medibank Private is ideology. I am not opposed to ideology. Ideology is the thing that brings us all to this place. It directs the things we believe in. But ideology and ideologically driven decisions always have to be tempered by commonsense. I am afraid that this government is banking on its ideology and not taking the opportunity to step back and ask these questions: what will this do to three million Medibank Private members; what will this do to all of the members of other private health insurance schemes in Australia; what will it do to the economy of this nation; and what will it do to premiums?

I have no evidence that changes my mind on this. I look forward to government members explaining to us how a privatised Medibank Private with an obligation to return dividends to its shareholders can actually put downward pressure on health insurance premiums. There is no logic in that. I invite members of the government to explain that to the people of Australia, because they are very concerned about what privatisation of Medibank Private will mean for our community.