Louise Yaxley reported this story on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 08:00:00

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: A report in the West Australian newspaper today says the Federal Government is eyeing privatising the $50 billion Medicare payments system by handing it to the private sector.



Outsourcing Medicare and other Government payments could deliver significant savings in the May budget.



But it is politically sensitive and has the Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten already fired up.



Political correspondent Louise Yaxley joins me now.



Louise, what are the latest proposals?



LOUISE YAXLEY: Michael, the latest development is a signal that the Government is closer to taking this to the May budget.



It would be a big change to the way payments are delivered in Australia.



Instead of being through the Government, it would be through a big company, not necessarily an Australian company. It could be outsourced overseas.



And that would mean that people's private information would be handed over to a private source. That is of course controversial.



And it involves a significant amount of payments, so the new figure is that this could be up to $50 billion worth of payments including Medicare but also others, making it a big change.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: I guess that new $50 billion figure is new but we have known that they've been looking at something like this for some time, since back in 2014 almost.



What are the political implications of the fact that they actually are still investigating this?



LOUISE YAXLEY: What it means is that the Government is looking to find a new way to deliver these payments and to hopefully make some savings along the way.



But it opens a door for the Federal Opposition, which will gleefully accept any change to the Medicare system as a political campaigning tool.



And Bill Shorten's already taken up the cudgels on that one this morning. This is what the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten had to say a short time ago.



BILL SHORTEN: I don't accept the proposition that Medicare in Australia is in a state of crisis. The Liberals are always running around attacking Medicare.



They did it in the 2014 budget, they did it in the 2015 budget, and it looks like Malcolm Turnbull's no different to Tony Abbott.



They just want to flog off Medicare and privatise services and there's no explanation of the problem they're trying to solve, there's no examination of the consequences, and denying ordinary Australians access to universal healthcare.



If Malcolm Turnbull wants to make the 2016 federal election a fight about Medicare, Labor will stand up for Medicare for all Australians.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Opposition Leader Bill Shorten just earlier this morning.



And the other story that's around this morning, Louise, is the continuing drama about the Human Services Minister Stuart Robert and his trip to China.



Now the Prime Minister says that his department is investigating this - what's the latest on that story?



LOUISE YAXLEY: The latest is that the Opposition is demanding that Mr Robert make a full statement explaining what he did in China in 2014.



They say that they can see two breaches of the Code of Ministerial Conduct:



The first, they say that it appears to them that Mr Robert was in breach of the section that says that a minister shouldn't use public office for private gain in any way.



They also say that he appears to have breached a section of the code that says that you shouldn't engage in any activity to assist a private corporation if you are a minister.



So the Federal Opposition intensifying the pressure on the Government over Stuart Robert today.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Political correspondent Louise Yaxley there.





Editors note: this is a transcript of the item that went to air in Queensland. In an earlier on-air version, the presenter misspoke. The proposed outsourcing would include payments worth about $50 billion.