Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin by thanking Senator Duniam for his very passionate speech bringing to the attention of the Senate the outstanding work of Dr John Morris, whom I will admit was someone I was not familiar with, but it sounds like he made an outstanding contribution his family should be very proud of.

I rise specifically to update the Senate on the work of the Community Affairs References Committee into the Prostheses List, an ongoing inquiry that the committee has been working on. In doing so, I want to acknowledge the work of many senators and in particular Senator Stirling Griff, who brought this matter before the Senate and moved the reference itself.

There are really three different partners when it comes to understanding how the Prostheses List is being determined. There are the medical device companies—that is, the people who actually produce the devices themselves. There are the private hospital chains, which are effectively where you go to have your procedures. Then there are the private health insurance companies consumers themselves interact with.

There has been a lot of concern in recent times regarding the rising costs associated with these types of medical procedures. The Senate itself and the committee have been working hard to try to get to the bottom of why this has happened. Unfortunately, however, our ability to do that has been severely hindered by the inability of the committee at certain times to be able to access the relevant witnesses.

I want to note that this is a matter of public importance when you look at the over $6 billion in public funding that goes to the private health insurance rebate. This is not a matter that should be removed from debate. Again, there is a time and a place where private business acts privately and where I believe there should be a different level of public accountability. When there is such a large amount of public funding involved in supporting this industry, important transparency questions need to be asked.

I also want to note the absence of Medibank Private—the largest health fund, I believe, of its kind—from our hearings. I understand that they said that they were unavailable. I believe a new date has been set. I believe the committee has written a letter to them, outlining the Senate's powers insofar as summoning witnesses. This advice was provided to the committee by the Clerk. I hope they are powers that do not ever have to be exercised. Sometimes these powers in their non-use can be as effective as their use. The ACCC is currently investigating the behaviour of Medibank Private, which dates back to 2012. It is Australia's largest private health insurer. It has approximately 3.9 million members through its Medibank and ahm brands. Since at least 1 January 2012, Medibank—