Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is directed to the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Minchin. I refer him to press reports that he has just announced the deferral of the sale of Medibank Private. Can the minister confirm that is the case? If so, isn’t that a humiliating backflip brought about by the fact that he cannot prove the government owns Medibank Private, he cannot prove premiums will not rise following the sale and he cannot explain whether foreign ownership will be permitted if it is sold? Of course, the minister also knows that the public do not support the sale. Minister, given this is the third botched sale you have been responsible for, following the failure of your handling of the Snowy and Telstra sales, will you now abandon your ideological and arrogant obsession with selling Australians’ assets and listen to the Australian public when they say they do not want their assets sold?