Government criticised for hiring PR firm to help with Medibank Private's potential sale

Updated

The Federal Opposition has attacked the Government for spending $2,000 a day for a communications adviser to help with the Coalition's plan to sell Medibank Private.

A scoping study looking at the potential sale of the health insurer is underway, but tender documents reveal the Government has already hired a public relations firm to help with the plan.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says the Coalition has long been committed to the sale of Medibank Private, but it is not a foregone conclusion.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it is wasteful spending to hire the communications firm.

"I think it is ridiculous that $2,000 a day is being spent to sell something where the public don't even know it's for sale," he said.

Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth says it is "concerning" to see what the Government's priorities are.

"At the same time they are refusing to help industry, when it comes to auto manufacturing, we see them willing to spend $2,000 a day on spinning their way to selling Medibank Private," she said.

The Greens health spokesman, Richard Di Natale, also criticised the cost of hiring the PR firm.

"It says everything about the priorities of this Government, that it cares much more about spin doctors than it does about giving ordinary Australians access to the family doctor," he said.

Senator Cormann says there is "no good reason" why the Government should continue to own the health insurer, but it would wait to see what the scoping study suggests.

"What we said when we announced the scoping study in October is that we would receive the report back at the end of February," he told the ABC's AM program.

"We're on track for that and we will then be able to consider that report in the context of preparations of the next budget, which is due on the second Tuesday of May.

"We're not going to sell Medibank Private no matter what.

"We want to get advice from, through the scoping study, on a whole range of relevant aspects of the sale, including whether the market conditions are right, what the most appropriate sale method would be, the timing, cost and relevant regulatory issues and so on."

Medibank Private is Australia's largest private health insurer, trading under the Medibank and AHM brands.

Topics: health-insurance, health, insurance, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, australia

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