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1998 – 1999 – 2000
THE
PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF
AUSTRALIA
SENATE
MIGRATION LEGISLATION
AMENDMENT (PARENTS AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL
2000
SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATORY
MEMORANDUM
Amendments to be Moved on Behalf of the
Government
(Circulated
by authority of the
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
the
Hon. Philip Ruddock MP)
ISBN: 0642 451281
MIGRATION LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (PARENTS AND OTHER MEASURES) BILL
2000
OUTLINE
The purpose of the amendments to Schedule
1 of the Migration Legislation Amendment (Parents and Other Measures) Bill 2000
(“the Bill”) is to:
• provide for a new
regulation-making power in the Health Insurance Act 1973 to allow certain
prescribed temporary visa holders to be treated as “eligible
persons” such that they are entitled to Medicare under that Act;
and
• as a consequence, omit reference to temporary protection visa
holders from other Medicare-related amendments in the Bill as this reference
will no longer be necessary.
FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT
These amendments will not alter the financial impact of the Bill. It is
intended to make appropriate Regulations pursuant to proposed new section 6A to
ensure that temporary protection visa holders continue to have access to
Medicare as originally provided for by item 2 of the
Bill.
NOTES
ON AMENDMENTS TO SCHEDULE 1
Amendment (1)
1 As a
consequence of amendment (4) below, this amendment omits paragraph (e) from the
amendments to subsection 3(1) of the Health Insurance Act 1973
(“the Health Insurance Act”) as proposed in the Bill.
2 The
purpose of proposed paragraph 3(1)(e) was to include holders of temporary
protection visas in the Health Insurance Act definition of “Australian
resident”, so that these persons would be eligible for Medicare. An
“Australian resident” is one of the categories of “eligible
person” within the meaning of Section 3 of the Health Insurance Act, and
section 10 of that Act provides for payment of Medicare benefit to an
“eligible person”.
3 Because of amendment (4) below, which
provides for an alternative Medicare eligibility mechanism for these visa
holders, it is no longer necessary to include temporary protection visa holders
in the definition of “Australian resident”.
Amendment
(2)
Amendment (3)
4 These amendments are consequential upon
the introduction of new section 6A by amendment (4) below.
Amendment
(4)
5 This amendment inserts new section 6A into the Health Insurance
Act. New section 6A provides for a new regulation-making power to allow certain
temporary visa holders to be treated as “eligible persons” for the
purposes of that Act.
6 New subsection 6A(1) will allow the
Governor-General to make regulations, amending the Health Insurance
Regulations 1975, to provide that, subject to those regulations, a person
who
• holds a prescribed kind of temporary visa;
or
• holds a prescribed kind of temporary visa and is a member of a
class of persons prescribed for the purposes of this section;
is to be
treated as an eligible person for the purposes of the Health Insurance Act while
he or she is in Australia.
7 This provision will provide an appropriate
and more flexible basis for providing for Medicare access of certain
non-citizens in Australia on a temporary basis. It will allow, for example,
temporary protection visa holders to be prescribed and, consequently, treated as
eligible persons for the purposes of the Health Insurance Act.
8 New
subsection 6A(2) provides that the regulations may provide, without limiting the
generality of subsection (1), for all or any of the following:
• the
periods within which a person is to be treated as an eligible
person;
• the circumstances in which a person is to be treated as an
eligible person;
• the professional services in relation to which a
person is, or is not, to be treated as an eligible person.