Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I note the very good success of Medibank Private during this period, and I want to pay a compliment to and congratulate the management—to George Savvides and his team; to those who are involved in making that success possible. Based on my understanding of the report, and perusing the details, it appears that Medibank Private has announced a net profit of $380 million for that financial year—four times the previous year’s profit. That is a good result. Member benefit payments totalled $3.75 billion. Membership covered 3.479 million Australians. Eighty-six per cent of members used their insurance cover to claim for ancillary benefits: dental, optical, physiotherapy et cetera. There are ancillary claims totalling 752 million. You can see the benefits of private health insurance in this report, quite clearly. The market share reported was some 28.7 per cent of the total market and the last premium increase, announced in February 2010, saw premiums increase 5.74 per cent, which was just below the average for the industry at 5.8 per cent.

Speaking to the report gives me another opportunity to highlight my view and the view of the coalition that this should be sold. I expressed these views many years ago—in fact, on 4 August 2005, in an opinion piece in the Mercury newspaper and also in the Australian Financial Review on 3 August 2005, indicating that it made no sense for the Australian government to own Australia’s largest private health fund. Of course, that was coalition policy prior to the last election for very good reason. Joe Hockey has espoused those reasons and released the economic action plan for the coalition at the time. The No. 1 economic priority was to get Labor’s debt down and under control as quickly as possible. And the proceeds from the sale of Medibank Private would be quarantined for paying off Labor’s debt. It made a lot of sense then, it made a lot of sense in 2005 and it still makes a lot of sense now.

I note that, according to the annual report, it has paid an interim dividend of $32 million for the three-month period ending December 2009, and in addition the annual report advised that a final dividend payment of $48.3 million was recommended by the directors to be paid. Well, frankly, in terms of the taxpayer, that is still not good enough. Taxpayers deserve better and it is in the interests of the public and the taxpayer that it be sold. It is obviously performing very well under the good stewardship and management of Mr George Sawides and his team. As I said, they should be congratulated for what they have done.

This is clearly a policy decision. It is not a matter for the management of Medibank Private, but I do want to congratulate them and thank them for their initiatives in promoting healthy lifestyles. They have a range of initiatives to help the community address the obesity epidemic, tobacco and alcohol concerns and to promote prevention measures. That is fantastic. Congratulations! Well done. Obviously, over time—the short-, medium- and long-term—it is to the benefit of not only Medibank Private but also Australia that those initiatives are undertaken and implemented. I congratulate Mr Sawides and his team for that and look forward to working with them in pursuing and supporting those particular initiatives.

I made that call about privatisation in 2005. I make it again. It is a meritorious one that should be seriously considered to get our debt under control, and it is in the interests of the Australian taxpayer. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.