Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Okay; good point. But that is not the point. I will tell you one thing: I would never dream of putting up such absurd, dangerous, incompetent legislation as this. So I would say to the government: when it comes to matters of health, be a little less ideological and a bit more pragmatic; look at the history. Go back and look at your own history when in government and look at the achievements of the previous government, and do not wreck what was left for you.

I should add, and it was properly pointed out by the previous speakers, that private health insurance, as was shown in the report, is not a matter for the rich—far from it. People from all levels ought to have access to private health. The inquiry heard from National Seniors Australia—to name just one body—that this legislation, should it go through, will seriously hurt older Australians and pensioners. Time does not quite permit me to read out the quote, but again I refer you to the dissenting report.

The Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Health Australia gave evidence before the inquiry, pointing out how this will hurt their hospital system—which is one-third of the hospital system. He went on to say that the Catholic hospital system itself has a mixture of private hospitals and public hospitals. The private hospitals help to fund and subsidise the public hospitals. Should this legislation go through, they will be sorely affected. The Catholic public hospital system will not be able to be subsidised as greatly. The case will be exactly the same for the state hospital system. The same thing will happen.

I hope this legislation is heading for defeat and will not be seen again. I hope the government goes back to the drawing board and takes health a little more seriously. It should when the next reshuffle comes have a look at the minister that it has put up, because this is a disgrace. This is a disgraceful piece of legislation. Of all the policy announcements in its very first budget, this ranks as the worst. And that is saying something, when you think of the luxury car tax and what a shemozzle that ended in and the alcopops tax and what a farce and a fraud that is. This will hurt more—up to one million—low income people. We reject this legislation, and we support its rejection in the Senate.