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

I will refer to the Prime Minister by her appropriate title and I withdraw my remark. She goes on:

I gave an iron-clad guarantee of that during the election. The difference between Tony "rock solid, iron-clad" Abbott and me is that when I make an "iron-clad commitment", I actually intend on keeping it.

What an absolute joke that is. This is the same Prime Minister Gillard that told the Australian public, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.'

Then the cudgels were taken up by the then Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, who gave a speech to the annual conference of Australian Health Insurance Association in 2007, prior to the election. She rabbited on:

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.

There you go—Minister Roxon. Then she reiterates this on 23 September 2007 with Steve Lewis. She is asked a direct question about the rebate and she responds:

We've committed to it. We've committed to the 30%. We've committed to the 35% and 40% for older Australians. It's similar to the safety net. We know that many people rely heavily on the assistance that is now provided and would not be able to have private health insurance if that rebate wasn't paid. And lifetime health cover and others that go with it, we are committed to those. We understand that Australia now has a mixed health system, both private and public, and we need them both to be strong in order for the community to be able to get the services.

She is asked again:

So you will not wind back that 30% private health rebate, despite the fact that Labor has been ideologically opposed to it in the past?

Nicola Roxon responds:

No, we won't.

If that is not a lie, what is? It reminds me of the biblical reference that before the cock crows there will be three denials. Then we have Minister Roxon again on 26 September:

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 …

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

Yet again, another lie. That is exactly what they have done. They are now taking it away. For a third time they are trying to take it away. Then you have Kevin Rudd buying in in a letter, which really was not worth the paper it was written on, to the AHIA 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 …

Again, in a press conference on 25 February 2008, Kevin Rudd said:

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