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Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Page: 1392

Private Health Insurance

Mr DUTTON (Dickson) (14:07): My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister indicate where in the Prime Minister's election Press Club speech, where in the leaders debate, where in the campaign launch speech, where in the Prime Minister's election announcement or where in the ALP's official health policy documents from the 2010 election the government's plans for cutting the private health insurance rebate are outlined?

Ms GILLARD (Lalor—Prime Minister) (14:07): I remind the member who asked the question that this parliament was dealing with these matters before the 2010 election campaign. There would not have been anyone aware of that parliamentary debate, which of course got a lot of publicity, who would not have known that it was the intention of the government to have a means test on private health insurance. The Leader of the Opposition is saying, 'Well, it did not get through the parliament.' That is true: it did not get through the Senate as it was then configured. This government brought its policy intention to the House of Representatives and to the Senate and made it very, very clear that that was the policy of the government. I would say to the member opposite that during the election campaign—

Mr Abbott: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: it was a very simple question. Where in the election campaign was the Prime Minister up-front with the Australian people about her intention to break a promise?

The SPEAKER: The Prime Minister will address the substance of the question.

Ms GILLARD: To the Leader of the Opposition's point of order: during the election campaign this government did something that the opposition did not. We filed our costings.

Opposition members interjecting—

Ms GILLARD: The opposition did not do that because they had at that stage an $11 billion black hole. They knew their figures could not add up, so they took their figures to an accountancy firm and they tried to say that that made it all add up. That accountancy firm has now been implicated in professional breaches. The one thing that they did not do is submit their costings to the Treasury, because they knew that they were engaged in the height of recklessness when it came to spending taxpayers' dollars. As a result—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Prime Minister will resume her seat.