Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I proudly stand here to oppose the government’s legislation and to say that I believe that the Labor Party in this place and around the country are both ideologically and pathologically opposed to private health insurance. They are opposed to it. They are hell-bent on putting to death private health insurance in this country. We have known that for a long time, but they have been putting up a charade. They put up a charade prior to the last election because they talked about not changing the system on countless occasions in the public arena and on the public record. The now Prime Minister and the Hon. Nicola Roxon, the Minister for Health and Ageing, made promise after promise that there would be not one iota of change to the private health insurance rebate—not one iota. And change is exactly what they have done. They say one thing; they do another.

That is not just with respect to private health insurance; it is with respect to a whole lot of things. I will give you another example: grocery prices. Prior to the last election, Mr Rudd promised that grocery prices would be lower under Labor. Of course, they got into government and what did they do? They set up the $13 million GROCERYchoice website, which, after many, many months, we all know was flawed and an absolute joke. They subsequently closed it down. That is why we have established a Senate inquiry into the GROCERYchoice website. It was a terribly costly stunt.

Mr Rudd promised that by 30 June this year there would be no more blame game. He said he would fix the problems with the public health and hospital system in this country. What have we seen? We have seen reviews and inquiries but no action. We know now that Labor pathologically and ideologically oppose private health insurance. On this side we support a balance. We think there should be support for public hospitals and proper funding and support for private health insurance.

I am going to read some of the government’s commitments into Hansard, to put them on the public record. The government’s policy proposals and this legislation, the Fairer Private Health Insurance Incentives Bill 2009 and related bills, will put further pressure on public hospitals. There will be increased waiting lists and increased waiting times as a result of this government legislation. It will increase the cost of private health insurance for millions of Australians and it will result in fewer people with private health cover.

Before I refer to the commitments of Labor prior to the last election—including their total commitment, without one iota of change, to the private health insurance system and the rebate—let us just recap where we are up to with respect to private health insurance in this country. At the end of March 2009, there were 9.7 million Australians who were privately insured. That was up from 5.7 million, a huge increase, since the downward spiral just after Labor left office, with health insurance levels bottoming out in December 1998. Remember, under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, private health insurance participation rates dropped from 63.7 per cent in 1983 down to 33.5 per cent in 1996, at the commencement of the Howard-Costello years. Thank goodness for the coalition, which in 1996 put things back on track to provide a balance, to provide certainty, to take pressure off the public hospitals and to provide support for Australians who desperately needed decent health insurance. Policy initiatives such as the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate and Lifetime Health Cover certainly helped to turn things around.

Let us have a look at what Labor said prior to the last election, because I want to put this on the record. They should be red-faced with embarrassment about the promises that they made. On 20 November 2007, in a letter to the Australian Health Insurance Association, the opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, wrote:

Both my Shadow Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, and I have made clear on many occasions this year that Federal Labor is committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate and the 35 and 40 per rebates for older Australians.

That was their commitment. They put it in writing and they said it publicly. In a speech to the annual Australian Health Insurance Association conference in Melbourne on 10 October 2007—that is, private health insurance members and stakeholders from all around Australia—the then shadow health minister, Nicola Roxon, got up and said:

“This is why we have committed to the current system of private health insurance incentives—including the package of rebates, the Lifetime Health Cover and the surcharge.

Labor understands that people with private health insurance—now around 9 million Australians—have factored the rebate into their budgets and we won’t take this support away.”

They said they would not take that support away; they had factored it into their budget. They made that statement categorically and publicly, on the record, in writing and in every way, shape or form. But once they got into government, they broke their word. They broke their promise. That is wrong, dead wrong.