Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate that the Australian Greens are supportive of the Medibank Private Sale Bill 2006 being addressed as a health issue—which clearly we all understand it will be—so that we can look at the implications of this sale not only on the private health insurance area but also on our public health system. There are implications for this in the $3 billion that this government spends every year in providing the private health insurance rebate. That is an issue that needs to be addressed, and the community affairs committee is an appropriate place to do that. The community affairs committee has a lot of work to do. Given that the government does not intend to proceed with the sale of Medibank Private until 2008, and it has indicated that the timetable for it is dependent on legislation being enacted, then clearly the government is prepared to wait—and it should wait so that the community can have a real and genuine discussion about the implications of the sale of Medibank Private—so the community affairs committee can look at it next year. We support the proposal put forward that there be a longer reporting date so that these things can be properly addressed.

This is one situation where we do know what is proposed in the bill—it is pretty simple; the government wants to sell off Medibank Private—but there are many other situations where we do not. I can think of migration legislation that just last week was referred to a committee. We do not know what is in it—therefore we do not know how long we need for people in the community to genuinely be involved in discussions about the implication of the legislation—because we did not even see the legislation before the government referred it to a committee. At the time we were being asked to agree to refer it, we could not even get a copy of the bill so we knew what it dealt with. All we can rely on is a few dot points that the minister’s office has given us. They may cover some things in the bill and leave other things out. They may not mention the implications of the bill. We cannot make that assessment when we cannot even see the bill, yet we are being asked to decide whether it should go to a committee and how long it should go for.

This process is taking away the strong role that senators have had in reviewing legislation. The government is simply abusing the processes by not showing us the legislation and then deciding which committee legislation should be referred to, how long it should be referred, who is allowed to say anything and whether or not there can be a time frame for public inquiry and community debate about these important issues. So, on this issue of Medibank Private, the Greens say there are health implications. They need to be addressed by a Senate committee, and that Senate committee needs time to look at the significant health implications of this proposal. That means into next year, and that is what we should be doing here. The Greens absolutely support the proposal to refer the legislation to the community affairs committee and to give enough time for the public to be involved in the debate about the health implications of this proposal to sell Medibank Private.