I speak in debate on the wonderful Health Insurance Levies Amendment Bill 2024. I am in shock at the utter cynicism of those opposite. The member for Terrigal came into the Chamber with his dictionary. I have a dictionary too. I refer to page 1,055 of the third edition of the Macquarie Dictionary:

"hypocrisy … the act of pretending to have a character or beliefs … that one does not possess"

Members opposite are hypocrites. They fail to have a position on a whole host of things: housing—

Ms Anna Watson: Transport and education.

Mr NATHAN HAGARTY: —transport and education. They do not have a position on anything. I bet I know when they came to a position on this bill. It was two days ago when an article in The Australian said that Federal electorates are at risk because of it. They are only opposing it because of cynical, short‑term politics. That is the only thing that motivates them. The other thing that probably motivates them is sticking up for big businesses. The member for Terrigal rattled off various statistics about Central Coast electorates and how all these people are going to come knocking on doors and asking what is going on. The only thing motivating those opposite is hypocrisy, cynicism and short-term politics.

There was an accusation about not meeting with private health insurers. I can confirm that the Minister and his office have met with them at least 20 times. That is a big number. I know members opposite do not deal with big numbers but 20 is a big number. They spoke about the previous bill and the need to sit down and negotiate. We have negotiated. All that former Premier Baird did was put a bit of pressure on the insurers and kick the can down the road—much like those opposite have kicked a $188 billion debt down the road to this Government. The statistics show that there has been a 110 per cent increase in profits for private health insurers over the past few years. That is $1.3 billion in super profits over that time. All that has gone to executive bonuses. They have gone up significantly—somewhere around the vicinity of a million dollars in the past few years. Those opposite are backing that in, which is disgraceful.

In my neck of the woods, the South Western Sydney Local Health District has been under significant pressure, especially during the 12 years of the previous Government. An upper House inquiry a few years ago showed that there were horrendous outcomes for people in my area. The level of profits that those companies have earned in the past five years since they stopped paying their bills is $60 million. All that serves to do is short‑change the people in my electorate even more. I cannot believe that those opposite would try to stick up for those companies, those huge multinational corporations. Bupa earned $25 billion in revenue in 2021. That is who they have gone in to bat for. They have forgotten about the people of New South Wales. They have abrogated their responsibility to look after the health and welfare of the people of New South Wales. Once again, they have backed in big businesses like Bupa.

The majority of the insurers—whether they be the Teachers Health fund, the Nurses and Midwives Health fund or the Emergency Services Health fund—are paying their fair share. They are paying their bills and doing the heavy lifting. But a handful of them are not. It is quite clear that no level of negotiation will work because those negotiations have been had at least 20 times now. They were had 10 years ago. The companies said, "All right, we'll play along for a little while. Then, when they're not looking again, we'll go back to the old way of doing things." They have done that. The only way to stop that happening is to enshrine it in law. That is why I support the bill. Those opposite stand condemned and I am very disappointed.