Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We are absolutely committed, as a government, to returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13. To achieve that surplus the government is undergoing one of the fastest fiscal consolidations in history. This means you have to make tough decisions, and that includes tough decisions like reforming how we subsidise private health insurance. That was a tough decision that said, 'We want a sustainable private health insurance system.' We have made the tough decision that says, 'We can't subsidise the private health insurance of everyone. We can't ask ordinary working families to subsidise the private health insurance costs of the very wealthy.' (Time expired)