Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Members of our community expect and deserve to be able to access a GP and medication that they need to without having to break the bank. We also expect that democracy works, where politicians work in the interests of the people who elect them and not in the interests of the corporations who fund their campaigns. Our public health services are, as anyone who is paying attention would be able to tell you, in crisis. The AMA predicts that the elective surgery waiting list will grow to 500,000 by June. That's nearly one in 50 of our community who will be waiting for elective surgery. Private health insurance has become, in many ways, a necessity in this country. If you need a dental care appointment, if you need mental health care or if you need even basic care in a timely fashion, then you often need private health insurance or you will be waiting and paying thousands out of pocket.

While many of us are despairing at the current crisis, there is one group of people and individuals who love the system just the way that it is: private health and pharmaceutical companies. They love the system so much, in fact, that they gave nearly $2 million to the Australian Labor Party and to the coalition in the last couple of years alone. It isn't hard to join the dots between our public health system being under-resourced and private health insurers and pharmaceutical companies lining the pockets of the major parties. The Greens want to see this place ban corporate donations so that companies like Medibank Private and Bupa don't get to influence the direction of health policy in this country. Let us have a health system for people and not for big corporations.