STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr VENNING (Grey) (13:48): Labor's $11 billion private health tax grab is nothing short of a disgrace. It lands hardest on people who can least afford it. In my electorate of Grey, more than 23,000 residents face increases of up to $807 per year just to keep the cover that they have.

Labor's own department admitted in writing what happens next. Pensioners will cut, downgrade or drop their cover. Many will cut back on essentials.

Some will go without treatment, and everyone will be worse off. That is life under this Labor government. The health minister claims that 44,000 pensioners will be affected, yet new data says almost 40 per cent of seniors in outer suburban and regional Australia are ready to walk away from their cover.

When will the minister tell the House which hat he pulled that number from? Nearly 90,000 people in Grey hold private health insurance. It pays for over 26,000 hospital admissions a year, of which almost one in five are cancer related.

Take that away, and it is our regional hospitals, doctors and nurses who will be left to pick up the pieces. This government cannot find the money to keep a pensioner in their health insurance, but it can find billions for their corrupt mates in Victoria.