Grant Chapman (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is cynical, Senator Coonan; it is completely cynical and completely dishonest. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister’s reaction when questioned about this matter on radio yesterday and caught unawares by the Channel 10 News cameras as the spin surrounding this policy unravelled. The Prime Minister could not explain away that the budget papers clearly showed that consumption of premixed drinks will actually increase. For the first time, the public saw the Prime Minister’s real character—which has been known around this place for years but carefully hidden during the election campaign and the subsequent six months. We saw the temper tantrum, the dummy spit, as the Prime Minister threw down his earpiece and stormed out of the interview when he realised his spin machine had completely failed him. As the Prime Minister’s glass jaw was broken, it became increasingly evident to him that the Australian people are smarter than he gives them credit for. This policy will not achieve the results the government claims, and no amount of Labor Party spin can cover up the fact that this is simply a grab for additional tax dollars. It will serve only to increase inflation and, ironically, through self-mixed drinks, increase binge drinking among young people.

And then there is the absurd policy of increasing the income threshold for the Medicare surcharge from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples. This is Labor Party ideology gone mad and it shows no common sense at all. Leaving aside for a moment the issue of forcing people back into the public health system, which is already buckling under the pressure of mismanagement by state Labor governments, let us turn our attention to the inflationary impact of this policy. The government’s own budget papers and the Treasurer himself have confirmed that they expect 500,000 people will leave private health cover as a result of this bizarre policy. If the fearful rhetoric of this irresponsible government is correct and we are suffering an inflation crisis, why would they introduce a policy which will encourage people to withdraw from private health cover, effectively putting between $50 and $200 of disposable income per month back into people’s pockets? It is sheer hypocrisy! Treasurer Swan, Prime Minister Rudd and any other Labor representative who can grab five minutes in the media have been playing the politics of fear and talking up inflation. We are currently operating in a period of higher inflation, but, if it is as bad as they claim—