Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Kevin Rudd—and now they want Australians to believe that they can improve the private health system with a means test on the rebate. They might also try to get pigs to fly. Sadly, as is so often the case with Labor, this legislation represents yet another broken promise. Labor failed to have similar legislation passed in the Senate in May 2009 and again tried and failed in November of the same year. This was despite a commitment to not change the private health insurance rebate.

Let us face it: these bills are more about the ideological obsessions of the Labor Party. Because of their socialist DNA, they have a hatred of private enterprise. What pushes their collective button is the redistribution of wealth, taking it away from those families who work hard and smart to get ahead so that Labor can reward its camp followers, those who expect everybody else to pay for them. The ALP's contempt and disdain for private health funds is obvious. Class warfare is alive and well and, whenever Labor gets the chance to target the private sector, it does so. It is a big target for the Labor Party.

The ALP in 2012 has two themes: tax and spend. The thrust of its revenue gathering is to make those who largely do not vote for Labor pay more, yet in its smug arrogance that it knows better than others it does not seem to have dawned on the Gillard-Greens alliance that any exodus from the private funds because of the higher fees will lead to the overwhelming of the public hospital system.

I do not support these three bills because they will ultimately lead to an erosion of our healthcare system for everyone—increased health insurance premiums, increased demand on our already strained public system, reduced accessibility to ancillary services, increased cost-of-living pressure on individuals and families, and decreased choice for all Australians. These bills are not about better health outcomes. This is a cash clawback to fund Labor's growing and increasingly fanciful budget surplus and to cover up for their financial mischief in other areas. I will not be supporting these bills. I urge all members of the Senate not to support these bills in the interests of keeping health care in this country growing and improving for all Australians.