Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If you want to hold onto it, you do not have those funds. Through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, to Senator Lundy: you do not have that opportunity; you are effectively opposing and blocking opportunities for more funding for medical research, and I do not support that.

I want to put on the record my strong support for George Savvides, the CEO of Medibank Private, and his team—his executive team and his management team—for the work they have done over the last few years in getting Medibank Private into a very financially capable position and indeed improving its profitability and making it a very sound company—such that the government can make this decision for and on behalf of the taxpayers. George Savvides has helped turn the company around. He has done an excellent job in doing that. He has put Medibank Private in a position where there is now significant interest from potential buyers, as has been noted in the media in the last weeks and months.

My views with respect to Medibank Private have been noted already in feature articles in the Hobart Mercury on 4 August last year and in the Financial Review on 6 September last year and in a speech in the Senate in May this year. I believe that choice is underpinning the government’s policy. It is something that Labor opposes. Labor has an equivocal position on choice—some people would say opposition to it—particularly with respect to the 30 per cent health insurance rebate. I hope that is something that the opposition clarifies before the next election. (Time expired)