Have Your Say

Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance and Other Measures) Bill 2025

23 March 2026

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (12:48): The Treasury Laws Amendment (Genetic Testing Protections in Life Insurance and Other Measures) Bill 2025 is an important piece of legislation. It truly is. What I do question is why it has taken this long to be brought before the House. The coalition, as is often the case, had to drag Labor kicking and screaming to this point.

The government does need criticism for delaying implementation of this vital bill, which contains long overdue protections around the use of genetic information in life insurance, which is in schedule 1; relief for foreign financial services providers, which is in schedule 2; and financial adviser registration requirements, which is in schedule 4. But there’s also the point about weakening scrutiny by introducing new funding arrangements for multilateral development banks, which is part of schedule 3.

I appreciate that there has been stakeholder negotiation. All too often we find with any bill Labor introduces that, first of all, it’s too little, too late. There’s procrastination. But so often we hear from stakeholder groups that they have not been able to put their case to the government and that there has been little or no consultation. At least these organisations are supportive of the bill: the Financial Services Council, the Council of Australian Life Insurers, the Australian Financial Markets Association, the Financial Advice Association Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. That support is to be encouraged because a bill which contains these sorts of measures needs proper input.

In 2019, whilst in government, the Liberals and Nationals coalition supported the introduction of an industry moratorium as a temporary or interim safeguard with the expectation that legislation would follow. By the time the May 2022 election came around, there was broad agreement across industry, clinician stakeholders and the parliament that legislated protections were needed. Of course, a number of things happened after 2019, not least of which was COVID-19, that put great difficulties on a number of things. Move on to September 2024, when the coalition was no longer in government—more’s the pity—the then assistant treasurer, the former member for Whitlam, the immediate past member for that electorate, announced to great fanfare that Labor would be introducing legislation to ban—forbid—genetic discrimination in life insurance. That announcement was widely welcomed, and it raised genuine and real expectations amongst Australians and the medical community, as previous speakers have noted, that people should not be discriminated against because they go and get medical checks for hereditary illnesses or diseases or the like. But by the 2025 election, no legislation had been introduced, none. These reforms, it seems, were simply not a priority for Labor. Labor came to office in May 2022 promising to be more transparent, promising that it would get on with the job that it said it would do. But we know, in so many areas of endeavour that are so important to Australians, that Labor has failed, and this is another of them.

Australians were left waiting and wondering and the delay has had genuine consequences. Delaying a bill such as this does have an impact in the community, in all of our communities. The people we represent, ordinary everyday Australians, expect better and expect this place to just get on with the job. I know the wheels of parliamentary process, just like the wheels of law and legalese and justice, turn very slowly at times but they don’t have to turn this slowly. We just heard from the Teal member for Curtin. With strong bipartisan support—refer back to what I said when we were in government in 2019—and with no opposition, there is no reason why this legislation could not have been introduced in the previous term—no reason, none whatsoever.

Labor’s delay was not without effects, not without consequences and, as I said, they are real consequences. People who could have benefited from genetic testing may have been discouraged because of concerns about insurance discrimination. That is not being melodramatic; it is not too far fetched. That is a genuine concern. It was a real fear amongst people who could have, would have or possibly did delay the genetic testing that would have gotten the important medical results they needed for their own peace of mind and for the sake of their own health. Labor kicked this into the long grass.

As I said, when there is procrastination and the government delays, as it so often does, there are genuine impacts in our communities across Australia. We have to be better than this—we do—particularly when there is bipartisan support, and when it seems you’re not going to get pushback from the crossbench, and when it’s just perfunctory legislation, or it seems that way. When the Senate will agree, the parliament will concur and royal assent will be given, I ask: Why the hold-up? Why the delay? What we’re talking about is people’s lives. What we’re dealing with here is people’s health. It’s not good enough. We’ve got to be better. The government has to pull its socks up; it really does.

The coalition supports these reforms, as we always did. We back them because they provide that certainty that is needed. They do prevent discrimination. I genuinely, in my heart of hearts, would’ve thought that avoiding discrimination would’ve been one of the hallmarks of a Labor government. It seems that, whilst it might be, the delays are questionable. The coalition backs these reforms because they support better health outcomes.

When I came into parliament in 2010, I was told that, if you had a healthy community, you had a happy community and things would go along pretty well. We’ve got a cost-of-living crisis at the moment, but health is everything. Yes, people are finding it difficult to pay their bills and, yes, every time they open their energy bill, every time they go to the supermarket and, goodness gracious, every time they go to the petrol station now they almost need to extend their mortgage, but if they’re healthy, at least they’re going to be happy. This bill supports better health outcomes, and that’s why the coalition backs it. It’s why Labor should’ve introduced it much, much earlier than right now. The reality is that this was a reform everyone agreed on, yet Australians were left waiting due to Labor’s delays, and we don’t know why.

In schedule 2, where there’s relief for foreign financial service providers, the coalition acted and Labor delayed; that’s a simple fact. This schedule provides long-overdue clarity for foreign financial service providers operating here in this country. It will assist in ensuring our market remains open, competitive and connected to global financial expertise, and let’s face it—there are some xenophobic people in this place; we all know who they are and what they’re about—we do live in a situation where we are very much part and parcel of international global financial markets.

In this particular schedule, schedule 2, we see more evidence of how slow this government has been on this particular bill. This legislation is another bipartisan reform that has broad stakeholder support. The coalition introduced this legislation in 2022, and since then industry has been waiting for Labor to deliver. It’s been four years—four long years—of delay from this government for reforms that have across-the-board support. At the same time, Labor will look to rush through controversial new taxes, as they did with the super tax. These delays have led to ongoing regulatory uncertainty, reduced confidence for international firms, which is a shame, and risks to Australia’s competitiveness as a financial services destination. We don’t want that, and we can’t afford that; we simply can’t.

The third schedule deals with multilateral development banks. As I said, we are at times very much at the whim of international global uncertainty and the financial markets and how they’re shaped by other bigger players in this area. We are a competitive force, and we need to ensure that anything to do with this and other bills has that taken into accord and account.

The bill introduces standing appropriations without a clear upper limit, meaning funding can be committed by the government without the same level of parliamentary approval each time. You can look at that a couple of ways. One of the situations that we’ve got at the moment is uncapped limits, it seems, on the National Disability Insurance Scheme. That is having all sorts of consequences for employment, because a lot of people are acting as carers when they would otherwise be engaging in other services in our community, services that are now being left way behind—I refer to child care and aged care—under the guise of the NDIS, which is this all-encompassing monster. I’m sure that every single one of our electorate offices is being bombarded with complaints about NDIS issues at the moment. And this, in this particular bill, is concerning.

The parliament should not be asked to sign blank cheques. All too often, particularly under this government, we have seen this parliament just push through legislation, and it seems as though the debt situation is just getting out of control. Nobody is caring, nobody is monitoring, and we do not want a situation with the NDIS similar to that where it just gets out of control.

I can remember Morris Iemma, who was a Labor state premier, was concerned about the health aspects of the New South Wales budget getting out of control. He said so, bravely. It was necessary to rein it in not to cut costs at the expense of people’s health but to put a diligent ruler over what was necessary. We have to. We must, as an absolute priority, do it with the NDIS at the moment, lest it get out of control, if it isn’t already. When it comes to this particular bill, this legislation before the House, we ought to do the same.

The coalition ultimately supports these provisions because we must meet our international obligations. Our credibility in global economic institutions actually does matter. We cannot afford to be seen as a slow or unreliable partner, and we never are. We said—and we said it under the previous leader of the opposition, the member for Farrer, and I know the member for Hume feels the same way—that when there’s good legislation, the shadow cabinet will consider it, we’ll take it through the normal processes, and, if it’s good legislation and it’s good for Australia, then it will be good for the coalition. We’ll certainly support it because that’s the way the coalition operates. We do it in the best interest, the national interest. We’re always operating in the national interest. When Australia makes commitments, they will be honoured, and that’s important, too. You must keep your word. Keeping your word is something that is important not just in politics but in life. It’s important that you stay the course, keep the faith and keep your word.

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