Senator HARRADINE (10:01 PM) —That is precisely what the amendment does. That is a penalty. Is that not a sufficient penalty? You could then have a number of funds offering the no gap or known gap policies having their premiums presented to potential fund members at a particular rate; others would not. Those that did not so offer could not provide on any of their tables a cut rate from their premium.

In the marketplace—if you are talking about the marketplace—it is an enormous advantage and an enormous incentive for funds to make sure that they offer this particular product, and it is what I propose in this amendment. To do otherwise would be to penalise the fund members for the failure of the fund to do what it ought to be doing. It would be unfair to penalise the fund members by taking away their 30 per cent reduction provided either by cash or through the taxation system. When advertising, the funds that were not participating and were not offering these particular policies would be at a great disadvantage because, in particular tables by comparison with the other funds, their premiums would have to be advertised 30 per cent above the others.

I come back to a point that you made. You are concerned about the failure of this to cap the fees that are charged by specialists. I think it will have the effect of capping them because there will be a lot of pressure on the funds to come to arrangements with public hospitals, particularly with medical specialists. But, let me make it clear to the committee, as most members of the committee must know, that it is, unfortunately, unconstitutional for the parliament to cap the fees of medical specialists. Senator Brown said we ought to be regulating them. Quite frankly, I tell you right here and now that I would be the first one doing that. But we cannot. I have been through it the last few weeks and you cannot do it. The states do have the powers to fix fees, but we do not. I know it is not perfect, but at least it is an advance. I am putting it to the committee and am hoping that it will be carried.