Oakeshott puts Julia Gillard’s political interests ahead of the welfare of his constituents

February 14, 2012

Member for Lyne Robert Oakeshott has once again sold out his constituents to prop up the ailing Gillard Government, Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker said today.

Mr Oakeshott tonight indicated in a Parliamentary speech that he supported the Gillard Government legislation to introduce the means test on the private health insurance rebate.  “Once again Mr Oakeshott has put the political interests of Julia Gillard ahead of the welfare of his constituents,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

“He has sold out the people of the North Coast, he has sold out the patients, he has sold out the medical staff, he has sold out the private hospitals and he has sold out the specialists.  Means-testing the rebate will lead to higher premiums and see more Australians opt out of private health insurance and seek care from the public health system.  Public hospitals are already overstretched and means-testing the rebate will simply put them under more pressure.

Mr Hartsuyker said tens of thousands of people will be affected on the North Coast.  “In the Cowper electorate more than 45,000 people are covered by private health insurance and I suspect similar numbers exist in both Mr Oakeshott’s electorate of Lyne and Janelle Saffin’s electorate of Page.

“Almost half of the people who have private health insurance have an annual household income of less than $50,000. These are people who simply cannot afford a big increase in their premiums.  Regional Australia will be hardest hit by this short-sighted measure.

“Means-testing the insurance rebate rips $2.4 billion out of health care and ignores the importance of private hospitals and specialists who service both private AND public patients in regional communities.

“On the North Coast we are fortunate to have some highly qualified specialists who service private patients but also attend to those who depend on the public system.  If those private patients disappear, so will the specialists.”