Dr WOOLDRIDGE (Health and Aged Care) (11:45 PM) —I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

This is a great day for the 5.8 million Australians who have private health insurance. This is a great day for commonsense over ideology. This is a great day because in three weeks time the price of private health insurance will be cut by 30 per cent, delivered in full, on time, as promised by this government.

This is a great day because we are delivering balance to the Australian health insurance system. We have a commitment to the private health sector as well as to the public health system. It is a great day because you are seeing concrete deliveries by the Australian government, as distinct from the carping, whingeing, negative opposition-for-the-sake-of-it by the Labor Party. The fact is that the private sector is important in health. It is important if it is something you want for yourself but, even if you do not want it, it is important because without a strong viable private sector you cannot have a strong viable public sector.

The fact is that the government believes in both. We have fought for it, and we have not been helped one inch of the way by the Labor Party. We have had a very substantial victory tonight delivering the first part of our tax reform package. In only three weeks, 5.3 million adult Australians will have a 30 per cent cut to the cost of private health insurance. This is something the Australian public wants.

In an almost unprecedented poll in today's Herald Sun, Australia's largest circulating newspaper, 98 per cent of people who phoned in said they wanted this passed. Only two per cent of people supported the Labor Party. The fact is that the Labor Party is completely out of touch with the Australian public. They have shown they have not understood the lessons of having lost in October, and if they keep supporting the sort of policies they have now—the negative opposition, the carping and obstruction—this government is going to have a very, very long term in office.