Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Minister for Rural Health, Minister for Sport, Minister for Regional Communications and Deputy Leader of The Nationals) (14:35): Senator Kitching, thank you for your third try but I'm very, very happy to outline the meaningful reforms we're actually implementing. You're right; there is more to do. Thirteen million Australians choose to hold private health insurance policies, and we want to support them, because if we cut the rebate—which, as we all know, Labor hates, private health insurance. I simply need to go to the comments of the former health minister, Tanya Plibersek, in 2016: 'Every single promise I made, I paid for.' How did she pay for it? 'I paid for it by targeting private health insurance.' That is what the Australian people need— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator McKenzie, please resume your seat. Senator Collins, on a point of order. Senator Jacinta Collins: The point of order is relevance. The minister was asked about Minister Hunt's statement about these problems having occurred 'on our watch'—in his words—and that 'it's our responsibility to fix it.' This minister is going back well beyond the period of time this question relates to and her own minister's admissions. The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, I have got notes of the question. I believe the question could interpret the word 'our' to cover multiple periods of time. Senator McKenzie. Senator McKENZIE: I'm happy to go to something much more relevant. The PRESIDENT: Order, Senator McKenzie. Senator Kitching? Don't restate the question. Senator Kitching: No; on a point of order, Mr President. The PRESIDENT: Yes? Senator Kitching: The quote cannot go to other times. It was a quote given by Minister Hunt and it's 'on our watch'. The quote is a direct quote from the Minister for Health. The PRESIDENT: The quote is a direct quote, but that quote the minister is free to interpret because it could actually refer to multiple periods of time. It could refer to the time beyond a person's time in parliament or as a minister. The minister was being relevant to the question as asked. It had a preamble and it covered a period of time. Senator Wong, on the point of order? Senator Wong: On the point of order, and I've just been nodding— Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, I'm trying to listen to Senator Wong. Senator Wong: Thank you, Mr President. I haven't been inclined to engage in the point of order debate but I am concerned by the intervention you just made, because the intervention you just made implies that direct relevance, under you, will now have no temporal limitation—that a quote from today implies a capacity to discuss things from previously. I invite you to consider, Mr President, the wisdom of that assessment. The PRESIDENT: Senator Cormann. Senator Cormann: On the same point of order: I fully support the way you have ruled on the previous point of order, on the basis that any quote out of context can be interpreted by the minister the same way as it was interpreted in a partisan fashion by the questioner. As you say so often, Mr President, you can't direct the minister how to answer the question. Of course, just because an opposition senator asserts that a particular quote is meant a particular way doesn't mean that the government has to accept that. The PRESIDENT: In my view, the minister is relevant to the terms of the question. It had a preamble and a question at the end. The minister. Senator McKENZIE: I'm really, really comfortable to go to what the AMA president, Mr Gannon, actually said about Labor's approach to addressing private health— (Time expired)