Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition say that they know all of this. If they knew all of this, why did they not start to do some of this work when they were in government? Because they were not interested in dealing with this issue. They did not want to grapple with the fact that we do need a strong public hospital system and a strong private health insurance industry as well.

The government does support private health insurance. We absolutely support the private health insurance rebate. We have always said that we want to give people incentives to take out private health insurance, not penalise people who cannot afford it. This rebate will be provided by the government to assist policyholders and to ensure that private health insurance remains affordable for all Australians. In 2007-08, this contribution by the government will provide around $3.5 billion in assistance. The government continues to consider ways—