Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Xenophon refers to it as a ‘potential’ problem. There are over 1,000 new collection centres starting in eight months, a 46 per cent increase—if you don’t think that that is going to lead to overservicing and pressures on GPs to refer more! Clearly GPs and others will be making money from having collection centres within premises they own or rent. As a result, if they are to receive funds from that, there will be pressure for extra referrals. It will be very interesting to see the increase in referrals since July last year. If we do disallow this situation, all we do is go back to that which existed in July—and there was no huge public outcry to deregulate this sector before then. In fact, there was no consultation whatsoever with the providers about this change.

So if we go back to that which existed in July 2010, we will get a position which will allow the government to engage in proper and genuine negotiations about these issues. As soon as this disallowance motion is defeated, as I suspect it will be, the government will say, ‘You beauty! We’ve achieved what we wanted,’ and there will be nothing you can hold over the government to get them to properly negotiate. Senator Xenophon, you continually live in hope that the government will abide by its promises and its undertakings. I would remind this place of the rock-solid guarantee given on 16 August 2010 by the Prime Minister that there will be no carbon tax. If you are willing to take her on her promise, and her minister on her promise, so be it.

In relation to competition, of course the coalition is committed to competition. I thought I had entered this debate from the coalition point of view trying to tease out the issues, not casting across the chamber the slurs and aspersions which the Leader of the Government in the Senate unfortunately descended to yet again when talking about donations and matters of that sort. Quite frankly, I think it demeans the leader and highlights the paucity of argument on the government side that they have to fill their time with that sort of demeaning nonsense. It does nothing for them or for their argument.

The simple fact is that, while some small providers are trying to get into the marketplace, they are being squeezed out as we speak. The failure of this disallowance motion will see the big providers get an even bigger market share and a greater monopolistic situation occurring at the expense of the small providers. While I do not think we will be able to change the minds of the Greens and Senator Xenophon on this, which is a matter of regret and the motion of disallowance will go down, the government will undoubtedly face a bigger bill and patients will face a bigger bill. Will health services and quality be improved? The answer to that is an unequivocal no.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Abetz’s) be agreed to.