Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments on the changes the government is proposing to the private health insurance rebates. The chamber would be well aware that after the introduction of Medicare in 1984 membership of private health funds fell. By 1998, only 30.4 per cent of the population was covered by private health insurance. We know that, following coalition measures—and very good measures they were—private health insurance climbed up to around 45 per cent of the population or 9.7 million Australians. This was as a result of the recognition by the coalition that there needed to be a greater incentive for people to invest in their own health care where they could. The increases to those rebates certainly provided that incentive for many people across Australia. We saw an increase of around 15 per cent in the number of people taking up private health insurance.

The government now wants to make some significant changes to that private health insurance rebate system, which can only be described as absolute stupidity on the part of the government when we look at the situation we find ourselves in with health. There is absolutely no doubt that health is the key issue—the priority issue—for Australians right across the country, no more so than in regional areas. My very good colleague Senator Joyce travels and knows exactly what I am talking about. In regional areas, the impacts are felt even harder.

What we are seeing from this government with the changes to the rebate is, as I said, incredible stupidity. The changes are going to do two significant things. It is going to increase the pressure on the public health system. How stupid is that? Anybody who is paying any attention at all to the affairs of this nation knows that the public hospital system is under siege in being able to provide the necessary level of care that it needs to give people. I take the opportunity to give enormous amounts of credit to the doctors and nurses who work in that health system. The incredible degradation of the system is by no means the result of the work and care that those health professionals put in but purely a result of state Labor governments.

And what does this government want to do? It wants to change the private health insurance rebate system to put more pressure on hospitals. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you take away the incentive for people to continue with their private health insurance they are going to cease that contribution and look to the public system to support them. It is going to put on the public system a significant amount of pressure that currently does not exist—pressure on a system that is already at breaking point. How stupid is it for the Rudd Labor government to do that? At the same time, by taking people out of the system—out of paying for their private health insurance—the costs are actually going to increase for those remaining members within the private health insurance system. It looks as though the premiums will increase by around 10 per cent, possibly more, by 2010-11.

Where is the sense in making those two incredibly significant changes within the health system? For this Labor government to make a decision that is going to put increased pressure on the public hospital system and increase the premiums for those who want to contribute to private health insurance is beyond belief, but it is just another example of the complete dislocation of this arrogant government from the people out in the streets in this country—the mums, the dads, the working families whom this Prime Minister purportedly represents. They are the ones who are going to be hit by these changes, and they are going to be hit hard. And what for? We know that the existing measures are providing the incentive to ensure that a decent level of health care is provided in this country. We know that that level of incentive encourages so many people to invest in private health insurance, which takes away so much of the pressure that is about to be put on our public hospital system.

What is quite extraordinary about this particular issue is that it is yet another example of the Rudd Labor government’s broken promises. It is starting to sound like a broken record, because the hits—those broken promises—just keep on coming. But the Australian people are starting to wise up. They are noticing exactly how many of those promises that the Rudd Labor government made before the last election have been broken, and the list is never ending. There are hundreds of broken promises. Sitting on the side of the chamber; we know that—we live it every day. But it is not just us now; the people of Australia are starting to pay attention and they are noticing Rudd’s broken Labor promises. This one to do with the private health insurance rebates is an absolute corker. I quote Nicola Roxon, who on 26 September issued a press release as the then shadow minister for health. She said:

Federal Labor rejects the Liberal scare campaign around the private health insurance rebates. The Liberal Party scare campaign this morning reared its head in South Australia. On many occasions for many months, Federal Labor has made it crystal clear that we are committed to retaining all of the existing private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate and the 35 and 40 per cent rebates for older Australians.

The Rudd Labor government made it crystal clear that it would not be changing those rebates, yet what do we see now? An extraordinary broken promise by this government. What I find incredibly sad is that the people of Australia believed Kevin Rudd when he said he was going to fix our hospitals. They believed Nicola Roxon when she said that they were committed to retaining the rebates. The Australian people believed the Rudd Labor government when they said those things. And what do we see now? Just a string of broken promises. It is worth bringing to the Senate’s attention the list of the promises that the now government made on private health insurance. Take the one I have just indicated to the chamber. I quote a letter to the Australian Health Insurance Association by the Prime Minister on 20 November 2007:

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.

Hello? Haven’t we got in front of us, right now, the taking away of those rebates? So what are the people of Australia supposed to think? What are they supposed to think when they heard, before the last election, that the government was ‘committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates’, and now they want to rip them away? I will tell you what they think: that this government is full of nothing but broken promises and that they cannot be trusted. People are starting to realise what a phoney this Prime Minister is, because this string of broken promises is starting to become endless. In February 2008 in the Australian the Prime Minister said:

The private health insurance rebate remains unchanged and will remain unchanged …

Well, it is starting to look as if it is trying to be mightily changed now.

So do we assume that the Prime Minister just thought, ‘Gee, it might be a good idea to break that promise; let’s give this one a whirl—I’ve got a few others on the go at the moment; I might as well add another one to the list.’ And they use this rubbish about it being to ‘make sure we’ve got the funding to cope with the global financial crisis’ every time there is a broken promise. Every time this government fall off the rails, they try to hide underneath the whole existence of the global financial crisis. It is not on. The Australian people are not buying it; they are not believing it now for one minute—because the government have form when it comes to broken promises.

In May 2008, on Macquarie Radio, health minister Roxon said:

… we continue to support the 30 per cent, 35 per cent and 40 per cent rebate for those Australians who choose to take out private health insurance …

In October 2008, in a speech at the Australian Health Insurance Association conference, Minister Roxon said:

Private health insurance consumers will still be able to claim the 30 to 40 per cent rebate, and the Lifetime Health Cover incentives will remain in place.

On 24 February 2009, in the Age, again, health minister Roxon, said:

The Government is firmly committed to retain the existing private health insurance rebates …

Do you know what this says, Mr Acting Deputy President? This says that this government cannot be trusted, not for one moment. They are a government of spin, and the people of Australia are seeing through it. And what they are seeing is this: if they cannot trust what Labor said before the last election—which now they obviously cannot, with this string of broken promises—how on earth are they going to trust anything the Labor government say running up to the next election? The thing is: they will not. They simply will not trust the government, because they know they have form. There is a string of broken promises.

As my very good colleague said earlier: if the Prime Minister thinks it is all very scary to threaten an election on the private health insurance rebates, bring it on! Bring it on, because I can tell you right now that those people out on the ground across this country have wised up to this Prime Minister and his broken promises. Does he really think we do not want to go out on the streets and ask the Australian people, running up to an election campaign, ‘Do you really trust Labor on health?’ Do you think that? Let’s just cast our minds back to what the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said before the last election—and this is what they will be saying during the campaign. What was it that he said? That’s right, he said: ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals.’ Isn’t that amazing, Senator Joyce: ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals’.