Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is deeply concerned that the government's bungled rollout of the My Health Record opt-out period has severely undermined the public trust in this important reform. We need an inquiry. The Finance and Public Administration Committee was and remains best placed to conduct it. The committee has just finished a lengthy inquiry into digital delivery of public services and has previously reported on the Medicare data breach. However, this motion—and indeed that statement just then—is evidence that the Greens and the Turnbull government are happy to cosy up with each other and do deals in their political interests instead of putting the Australian people and the public interest first. I note that the terms of reference in this motion are identical to those proposed by Labor, and this just shows that the Greens would rather grandstand instead of working on the best policy solution. It is also disappointing that the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has trivialised this issue, tweeting yesterday that it was just a stunt but now we have this deal. We will, however, support this referral because it is more important than politics. (Time expired)