Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

You have to make an appointment, Senator Cormann, to see her—by appointment only, between two and four on certain days of the week. But perhaps, on the odd days when her constituents actually get the opportunity to see her, she might like to explain to the 72 per cent of people in the federal seat of Bennelong who had private health insurance as at 1 January 2009 that, with these changes, Labor is going to hit them with higher premiums. Or, if they do not take out private health insurance, they are going to be hit by a higher Medicare levy surcharge. That is what this is about: a very little carrot and a lot of stick—a lot of stick. Bennelong is an electorate where the median individual income is just over $27,000, the median family income is just over $79,000 and the median household income is just over $61,000. These are the sorts of people that Labor is going to really hurt—those 72 per cent in the seat of Bennelong.

Let me look at some other Labor seats. For example, in the federal seat of Banks, as at 1 January, 56 per cent of voters had private health insurance. Go tell them how much extra it is going to cost them to have private health insurance and that, if they opt out of private health insurance, they are going to be hit with a huge increase in their Medicare surcharge. Go and tell the people of Barton, for example. Sixty-one per cent of the people in Barton have private health insurance.

This government is ideologically trying to portray this change as somehow hitting the rich. It is not. It is going to predominantly hit people on low to medium incomes—ordinary Australians who know that if they have to subject themselves to the rigours of the public health system, particularly in places like New South Wales, they are going to be waiting and waiting and waiting. Therefore, many of them make sacrifices to take out private health insurance, many senior Australians in particular because they know that they are going to have to call on the system. But this government is about to slug them with higher premiums or, if they do not take out private health insurance, a higher Medicare surcharge.

Let us look at other seats, such as in the Illawarra, where my electorate office is—working-class Labor areas like Cunningham and Throsby. In the federal seat of Cunningham, 55 per cent of people have private health insurance. In the federal seat of Lowe, it is 72 per cent. Try the federal seat of Macquarie: 41 per cent. In the federal seat of Watson, Minister Burke’s seat, it is 50 per cent; in Werriwa, 41 per cent. These are the ordinary Australians that Labor is prepared now to slug—and slug very, very hard.

Labor will turn around and say, ‘Oh, yes, but it’s only a very small number of people who will actually be affected.’ Last time we had this debate, Senator Ludwig had to come into this chamber to correct the record and tell us that it was over a million people—from memory, 1.7 million people—who would be affected by these changes. Catholic Health Australia have commissioned research by Access Economics which shows that the number of people who will quit private health insurance could be significantly higher—much, much higher.

These bills introduce three new tiers to the health insurance rebates. As a direct result of the changes in these bills, the cost of private health insurance, as I have said, will increase for millions of Australians by between 14 per cent and almost 67 per cent. These are people who earn above $75,000 as a single or $150,000 as a couple. Many thousands of the people in Labor’s heartland that I referred to are going to be affected. What sort of spin or argument is the Prime Minister going to run to fudge his way out of this one? The plain and simple truth is that this is a new tax on private health insurance that millions and millions of Australians are going to have to face.

What does this mean for our health system? It will increase the number of patients, treatments and costs on the public side of the ledger. Of course, this is at a time when the Prime Minister is professing he is going to fix public hospitals. It is very clear that all we have seen is lots of rhetoric and not much action from this government.