I rise to make some comments on the changes the government is proposing to the private health insurance rebates. The chamber would be well aware that after the introduction of Medicare in 1984 membership of private health funds fell. By 1998, only 30.4 per cent of the population was covered by private health insurance. We know that, following coalition measures—and very good measures they were—private health insurance climbed up to around 45 per cent of the population or 9.7 million Australians. This was as a result of the recognition by the coalition that there needed to be a greater incentive for people to invest in their own health care where they could. The increases to those rebates certainly provided that incentive for many people across Australia. We saw an increase of around 15 per cent in the number of people taking up private health insurance.
The government now wants to make some significant changes to that private health insurance rebate system, which can only be described as absolute stupidity on the part of the government when we look at the situation we find ourselves in with health. There is absolutely no doubt that health is the key issue—the priority issue—for Australians right across the country, no more so than in regional areas. My very good colleague Senator Joyce travels and knows exactly what I am talking about. In regional areas, the impacts are felt even harder.
What we are seeing from this government with the changes to the rebate is, as I said, incredible stupidity. The changes are going to do two significant things. It is going to increase the pressure on the public health system. How stupid is that? Anybody who is paying any attention at all to the affairs of this nation knows that the public hospital system is under siege in being able to provide the necessary level of care that it needs to give people. I take the opportunity to give enormous amounts of credit to the doctors and nurses who work in that health system. The incredible degradation of the system is by no means the result of the work and care that those health professionals put in but purely a result of state Labor governments. And what does this government want to do? It wants to change the private health insurance rebate system to put more pressure on hospitals. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you take away the incentive for people to continue with their private health insurance they are going to cease that contribution and look to the public system to support them. It is going to put on the public system a significant amount of pressure that currently does not exist—pressure on a system that is already at breaking point. How stupid is it for the Rudd Labor government to do that? At the same time, by taking people out of the system—out of paying for their private health insurance—the costs are actually going to increase for those remaining members within the private health insurance system. It looks as though the premiums will increase by around 10 per cent, possibly more, by 2010-11.
Where is the sense in making those two incredibly significant changes within the health system? For this Labor government to make a decision that is going to put increased pressure on the public hospital system and increase the premiums for those who want to contribute to private health insurance is beyond belief, but it is just another example of the complete dislocation of this arrogant government from the people out in the streets in this country—the mums, the dads, the working families whom this Prime Minister purportedly represents. They are the ones who are going to be hit by these changes, and they are going to be hit hard. And that for? We know that the existing measures are providing the incentive to ensure that a decent level of health care is provided in this country. We know that that level of incentive encourages so many people to invest in private health insurance, which takes away so much of the pressure that is about to be put on our public hospital system.
What is quite extraordinary about this particular issue is that it is yet another example of the Rudd Labor government’s broken promises. It is starting to sound like a broken record, because the hits—those broken promises—just keep on coming. But the Australian people are starting to wise up. They are noticing exactly how many of those promises that the Rudd Labor government made before the last election have been broken, and the list is never ending. There are hundreds of broken promises. Sitting on the side of the chamber; we know that—we live it every day. But it is not just us now; the people of Australia are starting to pay attention and they are noticing Rudd’s broken Labor promises. This one to do with the private health insurance rebates is an absolute corker. I quote Nicola Roxon, who on 26 September issued a press release as the then shadow minister for health. She said: Federal Labor rejects the Liberal scare campaign around the private health insurance rebates. The Liberal Party scare campaign this morning reared its head in South Australia. On many occasions for many months, Federal Labor has made it crystal clear that we are committed to retaining all of the existing private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate and the 35 and 40 per cent rebates for older Australians.
The Rudd Labor government made it crystal clear that it would not be changing those rebates, yet what do we see now? An extraordinary broken promise by this government. What I find incredibly sad is that the people of Australia believed Kevin Rudd when he said he was going to fix our hospitals. They believed Nicola Roxon when she said that they were committed to retaining the rebates. The Australian people believed the Rudd Labor government when they said those things. And what do we see now? Just a string of broken promises. It is worth bringing to the Senate’s attention the list of the promises that the now government made on private health insurance. Take the one I have just indicated to the chamber. I quote a letter to the Australian Health Insurance Association by the Prime Minister on 20 November 2007: Both my Shadow Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, and I have made clear on many occasions this year that Federal Labor is committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates.
Hello? Haven’t we got in front of us, right now, the taking away of those rebates? So what are the people of Australia supposed to think? What are they supposed to think when they heard, before the last election, that the government was ‘committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates’, and now they want to rip them away? I will tell you what they think: that this government is full of nothing but broken promises and that they cannot be trusted. People are starting to realise what a phoney this Prime Minister is, because this string of broken promises is starting to become endless.
In February 2008 in the Australian the Prime Minister said:
The private health insurance rebate remains unchanged and will remain unchanged …
Well, it is starting to look as if it is trying to be mightily changed now. So do we assume that the Prime Minister just thought, ‘Gee, it might be a good idea to break that promise; let’s give this one a whirl—I’ve got a few others on the go at the moment; I might as well add another one to the list.’ And they use this rubbish about it being to ‘make sure we’ve got the funding to cope with the global financial crisis every time there is a broken promise. Every time this government fall off the rails, they try to hide underneath the whole existence of the global financial crisis. It is not on. The Australian people are not buying it; they are not believing it now for one minute—because the government have form when it comes to broken promises.
In May 2008, on Macquarie Radio, health minister Roxon said:
… we continue to support the 30 per cent, 35 per cent and 40 per cent rebate for those Australians who choose to take out private health insurance …
In October 2008, in a speech at the Australian Health Insurance Association conference, Minister Roxon said:
Private health insurance consumers will still be able to claim the 30 to 40 per cent rebate, and the Lifetime Health Cover incentives will remain in place.
On 24 February 2009, in the Age, again, health minister Roxon, said:
The Government is firmly committed to retain the existing private health insurance rebates …
Do you know what this says, Mr Acting Deputy President? This says that this government cannot be trusted, not for one moment. They are a government of spin, and the people of Australia are seeing through it. And what they are seeing is this: if they cannot trust what Labor said before the last election—which now they obviously cannot, with this string of broken promises—how on earth are they going to trust anything the Labor government say running up to the next election? The thing is: they will not. They simply will not trust the government, because they know they have form. There is a string of broken promises.
As my very good colleague said earlier: if the Prime Minister thinks it is all very scary to threaten an election on the private health insurance rebates, bring it on! Bring it on, because I can tell you right now that those people out on the ground across this country have wised up to this Prime Minister and his broken promises. Does he really think we do not want to go out on the streets and ask the Australian people, running up to an election campaign, ‘Do you really trust Labor on health?’ Do you think that? Let’s just cast our minds back to what the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said before the last election—and this is what they will be saying during the campaign. What was it that he said? That’s right, he said: ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals.’ Isn’t that amazing, Senator Joyce: ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals’.
Senator Joyce—Unbelievable.
Senator NASH—Not only that; he said that, if state governments had not improved services by 2009: A Rudd Labor Government will seek to take financial control of Australia’s 750 public hospitals … That was to be by mid-2009. What is it now? I think it might be February 2010. He broke his promise to the Australian people; he misled them. He hoodwinked the Australian people into believing that he would actually fix the public hospitals, that he actually cared enough to fix the public hospitals, that he actually wanted to fix the public hospitals. And guess what? He is the Prime Minister, and he can make the decisions—and he can, but he chose not to; he broke his promise to the Australian people. This very issue, health, is the most important issue to people across Australia, and he simply turned his back on the Australian people and said, ‘Too hard; can’t do that one.’ What was it he said? He said something about a compromise with the state governments. So he has gone from being all hairy-chested, beating his chest before the last election campaign saying, ‘I’ll fix the hospitals; the buck will stop with me’—
Senator Joyce—‘After I cool the planet.’
Senator NASH—Thank you, Senator Joyce. I will take the interjection: after he cools the planet, of course! He is now saying, ‘Oh, there might be a compromise,’ and now he wants a referendum. ‘Gosh, what will I do next, I wonder?’ says the Prime Minister, because he certainly did not do—
Senator Abetz—He’ll shake that sauce bottle, I’m sure!
Senator NASH—He will certainly shake that sauce bottle, Senator Abetz—probably in consternation that he does not have a clue about health and does not have a clue how to even think about attempting to fix the problems in health.
The people of Australia have absolutely wised up to this now, because they can remember—they know. So if the Prime Minister wants to have an election on health: bring it on! Bring it on tomorrow; bring it on the day after—we will have it whenever he likes. This is about doing the right thing by the Australian people, and he has not—not for one moment—because he has simply broken the promises he made to the Australian people.
Isn’t it interesting that, with all the huff and bluster and hype that goes on, Justine Elliot, the member for Richmond, has not said boo in the other chamber about health? It is just a phoney government. It is so full of spin; it is quite extraordinary. It says one thing and does another. It is all talk, no action. It is all about words, words, words and spin, spin, spin and, ‘Gee, I wonder if I do something with this hand over here, and then something with this hand over here, they won’t notice that I’ve broken this promise over here, and they won’t notice that I, the Prime Minister, have not done this particular thing—I’ll just try to trick them with a sleight of hand.’
The Australian people are too smart for that. They are much too smart for that, and without doubt they are noticing what an absolutely phoney sham is this government, which has not delivered a single thing for the people of Australia. It is all talk, no action.
You cannot trust this government. That is obvious. You cannot trust it to keep its promises. You certainly cannot trust it to manage money. What was all of that about—
Senator Abetz—You can’t trust them in your roofs, either.
Senator NASH—You can’t trust them in your roofs, either—thank you, Senator Abetz. What was all that talk before the last election? I remember now—Kevin Rudd was an economic conservative, wasn’t he? How on earth can you trust them when on one hand he says he is an economic conservative and on the other hand he runs up $120 billion worth of debt? It is easy to shout the bar when you are spending somebody else’s money, and that is exactly what this Prime Minister is doing. He cannot be trusted to keep his promises. He cannot be trusted to manage money. It is an absolutely appalling indictment that he is not reeling in shame, having said to the Australian people that he would fix our hospitals and that the buck stopped with him.
The buck obviously stopped right next to him and then kept on going; it certainly has not stopped anywhere near him at the moment. He has just flicked it to some kind of compromise and now he needs some kind of referendum to ask the Australian people their opinion, after he promised them that he would fix the hospitals. Goodness knows they need fixing.
In regional Australia, as I said at the outset, it is worse than it is anywhere else. In New South Wales, we had the situation recently where Dubbo hospital had to borrow bandages from the local vet to be able to provide services. We had another situation at a northwestern hospital where they had to stop giving their patients meat because the state Labor government had not paid the butcher’s bill. That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the appalling standard of our public hospital system, and it was this Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who said he would fix it. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that he has not.
If there is one thing that the Prime Minister should probably take on board, it is that when you make a promise you keep it. If you are going to make a promise —especially one as big as fixing the public hospitals you had better keep it. The people of Australia are going to come after you, Prime Minister, because of this broken promise. Now that they do not trust you on this, they are not going to trust you on anything. You are not fair dinkum; they know that. The Australian people see every broken promise and they know he is not fair dinkum. They know he is phoney. They know he will not keep his word.
Now we have legislation to change the private health insurance rebates. It is so interesting, as my good colleague Senator Fifield said earlier, that one minute it is the ETS: ‘We’ve gotta cool the globe; it’s absolutely, vitally, incredibly important!.’ When we finished last year, the minister, Penny Wong, said: ‘We’re going to bring this back straight away; it’s so important—
Senator Joyce—The moral issue of our time.
Senator NASH—it’s the moral issue of our time.’ And now, first thing back, we have private health insurance rebates. What happened to that moral issue of our time? Mind you, there are probably a few different moral issues of our time, depending on what the Prime Minister happens to be talking about—the issue of the day. It is just so phoney and unbelievable.
On this side of the chamber, we know that this government is all talk and no action. But this is not just about this side of the chamber; this is about the Australian people, who are now saying to the Prime Minister, ‘You promised to fix our hospitals; you let us down.’ They believed you before but, Prime Minister, they are saying they are not going to believe you anymore. They are not going to believe your promises because they know that you cannot be trusted.