Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In Geraldton there is a small one. But if you have private health insurance in Western Australia and you live outside Perth you cannot get access to the private system. You have to go public because Western Australia does not have those services. The whole of Western Australia is not covered by private hospitals, so if you have private health insurance you have to go to Perth. My office did some figures on how much it costs to go to Perth to access a private hospital. If you have ever tried to travel around Western Australia you will know very well that it is very expensive to fly down from Karratha or Broome or to come up from Albany. To fly to Perth from regional Western Australia is very expensive.

Dare I touch on the issue of Aboriginal access to private health? I would hazard a guess that there are very few people, particularly among those living in remote Australia, who have any access to private health insurance or private hospitals. They rely totally on the public health system. I know where I would rather my tax dollars were going. I would rather they were going to help improve the health system for Aboriginal Australians, who have very poor health outcomes compared to non-Indigenous Australians. There is a 17-year gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal Australians and non-Aboriginal Australians. I know, also from feedback, that my constituents are very concerned about that gap and want the government to do everything they can to address it. One of the key things we need to address the 17-year gap in life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians is the provision of primary health care.

The experts say that you need $450 million per year for 10 years to deliver good health outcomes for Aboriginal Australians. That is where I would prefer that Australia’s tax dollars were going—to delivering better health outcomes for Aboriginal Australians and for low-income Australians. That is where we need to be investing our money. Three-point-two billion dollars would provide a lot of primary health care cover for Aboriginal Australians. I would strongly suggest that this is a bit of a step towards dealing with those issues.

We do not support Senator Xenophon’s amendments, and we strongly urge him to consider the benefits, albeit small in terms of stepping to a private health system, that this particular legislation would provide.

Progress reported.

Ordered that consideration of this bill in Committee of the Whole be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.