Mr ALBANESE(3.56 p.m.) —I am pleased to support this matter of public importance put forward by the shadow minister, the member for Dobell (Mr Lee), today because my electorate office—and I am sure other offices of members around this House—has been inundated by calls this morning from people concerned about the news that we got on the front page of the Daily Telegraph about these increases. The news that MBF are to increase their premiums by five to 15 per cent and introduce a $50 a night levy—John Howard's new bed tax on hospital stays—shows clearly that the Minister for Health and Family Services (Dr Wooldridge) has no idea how to manage the health care system of this country.

Furthermore, it highlights the greed of these private health funds, which the minister and the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) have failed to act against. It shows that they are simply prepared to take more and more due to the government's inaction. Indeed, from this day on, people would argue that MBF stands for something new—More Bed Fees—because that is exactly what today's announcement is.

The minister has shown, with his pathetic response today in which he failed to give any commitment to act, that he is simply not up to the task. Like the rest of his cabinet colleagues, the minister is clueless.

The coalition spent 13 years on the opposition benches. They had 13 years to come up with a comprehensive strategy for health care, but they do not have one. The only strategy we have seen in the last 18 months has been totally ineffective. Basically the policy can be summed up as follows. Firstly, you take millions of dollars out of the public health budget. Secondly, you pour millions of dollars into a private health insurance incentive scheme. Thirdly, you watch and do nothing as these private health insurers continue to increase their premiums and effectively negate any benefit whatsoever from the tax rebate. This is hardly the sort of inspiring leadership which this country needs on the public health issue.

The Minister for Health and Family Services has presided over a lose-lose situation. Firstly, the cuts to the public health system mean that the public system has lost out badly since March 1996. Secondly, those people who have taken out private health insurance have become losers as well with these increases in private health insurance.

This government has taken $800 million from the public hospital system. By way of contrast, Labor's 1993 budget pumped an extra $1.6 billion into the public hospital system. The government further restricted its services to the community by announcing the closure of 44 Medicare offices around the country, including two in my electorate—the only two which exist in Marrickville and Leichhardt. At the time the health department spokesperson was quoted as saying that the fact that most of these offices earmarked for closure were in Labor electorates was simply a coincidence. I think that sort of political decision making is an outrage. It is a decision that has met with a severe reaction from people across the country.

Also in the last budget the government announced savings of $561 million over four years with the new drugs tax; it has saved $100 million by increasing the cost of PBS prescriptions to pensioners; it has announced further savings of $112 million over four years by removing a number of medicines from the PBS altogether; and it has saved $400 million by abolishing the Commonwealth dental program. The big losers here are the people who rely on the public health system, the most vulnerable people in our community—pensioners, the unemployed, families, and people suffering from chronic illnesses.

In New South Wales alone, the Howard government has cut more than $134 million from health funding. On top of this is the $240 million cost burden borne by New South Wales public hospitals as a result of the fall in the number of people taking out private health insurance. The total cuts to New South Wales are $374 million. So if you want to know the difference in approach to health care between that of Labor and the conservatives, have a look at what the federal government has done with regard to public health funding in New South Wales and compare that with what New South Wales Labor in government has done through Bob Carr and Andrew Refshauge. In New South Wales, in spite of these cuts, the state government have increased funding for the public health system by $805 million over three years. They have done that in spite of the cuts and the attacks by this uncaring government.

The federal coalition government promised that they would provide incentives to people to take out private health cover. They have poured $1.7 billion into a scheme designed to do just that. But it is $1.7 billion wasted, when you look at the figures of the continuing drop-out from private health insurance. It is $1.7 billion which could have been put into the public health system.

In fact, in August last year, as the shadow minister has pointed out, the Prime Minister gave a personal guarantee that the government would tighten supervi sion of future premium increases. Well, now is the time for action from this Prime Minister. This could be again another Clayton's promise: the promise you make when you are not really making a promise. Private health insurers have increased their rates over the last 12 months to such an extent that the increased premiums all but wipe out the government tax rebate.

This latest application from the `More Bed Fees' fund to increase its premiums would cost families up to $275 million a year. On top of this, MBF plans to introduce the $50 a night bed fee. It may well be that it becomes known as `John Howard's bed tax'; or it may well be that, on behalf of this minister, it becomes known as `Michael's Bed Fee'. This is consistent with the increases which we have seen with HCF also foreshadowing a further increase in its premiums. No doubt this is a trial. If this is successful and there is no government action, the other private health insurers will follow suit.

It is very clear that the government's health insurance tax rebate is a resounding failure. The number of people dropping out of private health funds continues. Private health insurance coverage has fallen to 31.9 per cent of the population; in May of this year, the figure was 32.5 per cent. More than 91,000 people have cancelled their fund membership in the last three months, according to today's Daily Telegraph—and this is despite the $4 million advertising campaign to encourage people to take out private health cover.

I think probably it is unfair to say that the minister has lost the plot on this issue, because it is clear that he never had a plot to begin with. The fact of the matter is that this government has no commitment to the public health system in this country. We need to remember that, in 1982, two million Australians had no health cover at all. This was a result of this Prime Minister, when he was Treasurer in 1976, presiding over the abolition of Medibank and its provision of free health care for all Australians. In 1984 the same person, John Howard, voted against the introduction of Medicare, which restored health cover for all Australians. In 1987, Mr Howard said—

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Nehl) —The Prime Minister said.

Mr ALBANESE —And I quote: `We will be proposing changes to Medicare which amount to its de facto dismantling.' I think it is very hard to swallow the Prime Minister's change of position on Medicare if you have a look at the savage cuts to public health funding which have occurred over the last two budgets.

But then again this is not surprising when considering what we know about this Prime Minister. If you want to look at what he stands for, have a look at what he used to advocate. He advocated the abolition of Medibank. He hates Medicare and he said that he would dismantle it. Just as we are seeing his true colours there, we are seeing his true colours on the GST. Just as he supports the GST, he still wants to dismantle the public health system. There is a consistency with this Prime Minister because he also said on 2 May 1995, with regard to the GST:

No, there is no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy.

When asked, he said, `Never ever. It's dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election.' I believe that we are seeing the real agenda of this Prime Minister coming out. His real agenda is not only to introduce a GST but also about the dismantling of Medicare and the public health system.

Now is the time for action. If the Prime Minister and the health minister continue to back scuttle around and refuse to take action against this MBF increase, then I think not only will people sheet home the blame to MBF, known from today as the `More Bed Fees' organisation, they will also sheet the blame firmly through to the Prime Minister and the health minister. The people will know that their agenda is the reactionary, ideologically driven agenda which they have always pursued (Time expired)