Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

like the one in the member's electorate that is delivering after-hours GP services. We are investing in better primary health care. Our 2013-14 budget is a record investment in hospitals, cancer care and mental health funding. This week is Kidney Health Week. We saw yesterday increased support for GPs doing kidney function tests on diabetics and, from 1 July, our six weeks of paid leave will start for living donors.

Tomorrow is MS Day. Last week, we announced $1 million of extra funding for MS research, a very important contribution. Members on this side know that, to pay for those very important investments, we need to have a sensible and rigorous approach to finding savings. We need to choose; we need to prioritise. We means-tested the private health insurance rebate some time ago, saving $100 billion over 40 years. And now the House is considering two other private health insurance measures.

I was very pleased about reports that the coalition will back one of these measures. I see in the media today that one of the measures will receive support from the coalition. What is really curious is that one will receive support and one will not. Another measure here is with respect to Lifetime Health Cover. A fine is imposed on people who delay taking out private health insurance but who currently receive a subsidy from the government. The coalition are going to knock over that change. They are going to knock over that saving. I ask members: in what other area where the government imposes a fine does the government then pick up 30 per cent of that fine? It is like imposing a speeding ticket or a parking fine and then going and paying 30 per cent of that speeding ticket or parking fine. It makes no sense at all. Together, these two measures will save $1.1 billion. That is money for the kids dental program Grow Up Smiling, and it is money for DisabilityCare. You cannot support the spends—and the opposition say they support these spends—and then oppose the saves that pay for them.

Government is about choices. It is about the right choices. Sometimes that means the right choices in savings, savings that pay for priorities such as the kids dental program Grow Up Smiling, and DisabilityCare. These are programs that will change the lives of millions of Australians in years to come—3.4 million children and 400,000 people with disabilities. If you back the spends, you must back these savings. (Time expired)

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