Page 3484 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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families in respect of many of the core services—childcare, housing in particular, and education.
I want to talk today about some of the dangers of some of the Greens’ policies as stated in their documents. There are three areas that I want to touch on that will put extra pressures not just on household budgets but in some cases on the provision of public services, namely in education and in health. I will go to the various aspects of Greens policy in these areas.
The Greens plan to abolish the private health insurance rebate. That is one of the Greens’ federal policies. They plan to get rid of the private health insurance rebate. In the ACT approximately 55 per cent of the community have private health insurance, so that Greens policy of getting rid of the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate will put up the fees of the 55 per cent of the community who pay private health insurance. Their private health insurance will go up.
As night follows day, if the Greens get the balance of power, a vote for the Greens is a vote for higher costs for private health insurance. That is without a doubt. Sometimes they try and back away from their policies but on this one I have not actually heard any dispute. They proudly trumpet this policy. So the 55 per cent of Canberra families who are paying private health insurance, who are having 30 per cent of it subsidised, will lose that subsidy under Greens policy. Greens policy is for Canberra families to pay more. This will happen right around the nation if the Greens get the balance of power but it will be most keenly felt right here in Canberra, where we have 55 per cent of families paying private health insurance.
A 30 per cent increase can in some cases mean thousands of dollars per year on the family budget. Of course, the other thing that it will do is that, as there is less private provision of health care, there will be more pressure on the public sector. There is no doubt that we already have the longest waiting lists in the country and the Greens’ policy is to make that worse. The Greens’ policy, by forcing people out of private health insurance—and some of these Canberra families will be forced out of private health—will lead to more people relying on the public system.
So on the one hand Canberra families will pay 30 per cent more for their private health. On the other hand, public hospitals will have more pressure put on them as people abandon the private system in some cases. They are the twin elements—the twin results of this Greens policy. It goes to a hostility that the Greens have to the private sector right across the board.
Let us look at education. The Greens have stated in their policies on education that they will cut funding for non-government schools and they will take it back to 2003-04 levels. That is what they have said. That Greens policy would mean the non-government schools sector, which educates around 43 per cent of ACT students, would have $60 million ripped out of it under the Greens’ policy. So a vote for the Greens is a vote for $60 million being ripped out of the non-government schools sector in the ACT. That is their policy.
Bob Brown estimates that the Greens’ policy will mean $1,000 per student in fees every year. He may or may not be right. In Melbourne they are talking of hundreds of
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