Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I put it to you that, as my colleague Senator Cormann interjects, none of them have got it right. This is a tax of envy. It is another tax on those whom they think can afford it. But what they really do is punish those who cannot afford to be in private health insurance. What disturbs me more than anything is the fact that Labor, prior to the last election, repeatedly promised not to alter health insurance rebates. This reintroduced legislation once again breaks that promise that they made to the Australian people. Who are we to believe? When they come to another election and they start making promises to the Australian people, do we take them on face value or do we question them very suspiciously on the record of broken promises that they now have after a little over two years in government?

On 26 September 2007, Ms Nicola Roxon said:

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.

She then said:

The Liberals continue to try to scare people into thinking Labor will take away the rebates. This is absolutely untrue.

The Liberals were not continually trying to scare people into thinking Labor would take away the rebate; they knew on past form that Labor would say one thing, get elected and do another. I think that was Peter Garrett’s mantra. And my good friend Senator McGauran had a little to say about Minister Garrett in his speech. I do not want to go on at length or I will have the whip coming in to suggest that I am not speaking to the bills, as he did to Senator McGauran. But, in fact, Mr Garrett said, ‘We will say one thing before the election but when we get elected we will do what we like.’ The Prime Minister in a letter to AHIA on 20 November prior to the election that same year said:

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 cent rebates for older Australians.

On 25 February 2008, the Prime Minister said:

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

I am suggesting that perhaps his father should have said what my father said to me. I am not accusing the minister of lying or the Prime Minister of lying, but all I am saying is that if you do not tell a lie you will not need a good memory. Can you believe the Prime Minister? Can you believe anything he says? This is just one of the promises that he has gone back on. He said:

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

It is no wonder that not one Labor Party senator will come in here and defend this decision—not one. You would have thought that at least some of the senators would have come in and given some reasons as to why there has been this change. But not one of them can defend this change in policy—the Prime Minister made a categorical statement and has now reversed it. In 2009, just last year, the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, said in the Age that the government is ‘firmly committed’ to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates.

13:14:41

Over a period of almost two years—certainly 18 months—we had all of these statements saying that the private health insurance rebate would not be changed, guaranteeing it. The strange thing is that Minister Roxon’s comment in the Age was made on the very same day that the Prime Minister’s department was providing advice to the government about the specific proposal to slash private health rebates in the budget. You had Minister Roxon saying, ‘We are firmly committed to retaining the existing rebates’ on the very same day that the government was planning to slash them. These changes, of course, are going to further increase the cost of health care and put extra pressure on already overstretched public hospitals.

We even got to the stage where the Treasury in recent times estimated that just 25,000 people would drop their insurance. What a joke! On 16 October 2008 the minister for health, Ms Roxon, said that the projection from Treasury of the number of people who would drop out of private health insurance was just under half a million. Some projections have been even higher. If we get to the stage when you have got those numbers of people dropping out of private health, just think of the impact that is going to have on those who retain their private health and of the impact on public hospitals. Yet here we have a government which tries to maintain that, in giving $1 back to private health insurers for people who insure with private health—who then put $2 back into the system for every $1 that is rebated—that is somehow not going to have an impact on the health system, defies belief.

After the minister for health made this statement, the government was forced to admit that 1.7 million people with insurance would be directly affected, either dropping their insurance completely, or lowering their cover or paying higher taxes. The Australian Health Insurance Association estimated one million Australians would drop their health insurance.

I do not know of a more important matter that has come before this Senate in recent times, which is why I chose to speak directly on these bills. We have had climate change and we have had a lot of other things. The problem with this Prime Minister is that everything is a No. 1 priority. I think he has had about 12 No. 1 priorities in the last 12 months and now we have got to the stage when I do not know whether they have any No. 1 priorities. What should be one of their priorities is maintaining this existing private health insurance rebate because it is the only way we can keep our health system even moderately in a healthy shape. We all know that there are lots of other problems that exist within the health department. By lowering this rebate all they are going to do is add to those problems.

Increased premiums, which is what is likely to happen with people dropping out of insurance, will drive many of the most vulnerable Australians into the already overstretched public system. I have been around this place for a reasonable length of time and I remember that under the previous Labor government private health insurance coverage plunged to 34 per cent of the population. I remember distinctly the numbers that were dropping out of private health insurance coverage and the stress that that placed on our health and hospital system had to be seen to be believed. Somebody had to do something about it.

In the three stages that Senator McGauran spoke about earlier, the coalition managed by offering the incentives to get private health coverage up to 44 per cent; not as high as we would like to have it. Introducing the open-ended private health insurance rebate enabled more people to be encouraged into the system. Members of health funds contributed $10.6 billion to the Australian healthcare system in 2008, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year. How much do you think this would decrease if we allowed this bill to pass? How much do you think that would impact on the healthcare system if we were to allow this bill to go through? It is with that in mind that, thankfully, with the support of the Independents, we will be able to knock this legislation on the head for the second time so that those involved with private health insurance will be able to have some confidence that they can maintain their cover and still receive their rebate in the future.

We have always believed as a matter of principle as a coalition in the right of all Australians to take charge of their own healthcare needs and plan for the future. We have always worked hard to deliver the incentives that will promote the uptake of private health insurance and take the pressure off Medicare. The efficiency of the private health system is absolutely paramount in relieving pressure on the very stressed public system.

Private health insurance in Australia is an issue that has been under debate for as long as I can remember. When I first joined Mutual Community, I think it was, in 1961—the year I left school—we had a very, very strong and healthy private insurance system. We have seen under Labor governments that coverage drop to 34 per cent. We have seen under coalition governments incentives provided to make sure that it is now up to 44 per cent. The incentives required are something that we should never allow to be taken away.

This is very important legislation. I urge my colleagues and others to vote against this legislation because I think it is in the interests of all Australians, but particularly those who want to maintain a sound healthcare system in Australia, that we do not take away incentives for ordinary Australians.