Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

For 40 years they have been trying. You would think they would get it right. This is a community standard which even John Howard did not attempt to attack, which Gough Whitlam implemented against huge opposition from the predecessors of the members opposite, which Bob Hawke and Paul Keating implemented against opposition from John Howard and the Liberal and National parties. But even John Howard, who once declared that he would destroy Medicare, came to accept that community standard. Even he said: 'I accept that I've lost the debate. Medicare is here to stay. Universal health care is here to stay.'

Medicare is important to the nation that Australia has become and aspires to be, but this Prime Minister just does not get it. He says: 'No, I'm going to out-conservative John Howard. I'm going to rip up the social compact that is Medicare.' But he cannot even do it competently. And when he backtracks, when he tries to admit defeat, it lasts less than 24 hours, and you have the Treasurer out there countermanding the Prime Minister and saying, 'No, the Prime Minister's wrong.'

This Treasurer stood at that dispatch box and brought down that unfair budget when he considered himself a substantial figure, and he was seen as the substantial figure of the government, the person providing the government's narrative backbone—remember that? Actually, it was not that long ago. It was not that long ago when he was the government's most substantial figure. Now the Treasurer is in danger in a slight breeze! That is how substantial he is these days. You have got to hope they have got him tethered down. Senior Liberals are speculating that he might not make the election as Treasurer because of his incompetence, and he says: 'No, we're sticking by it. We've got an alternative vision for the nation.' He says, 'Just because you lose in the Senate, you don't let a little principle like that get in your way; you keep going.'

They have an alternative vision for the nation, and it is a cheap and nasty one. It involves making people pay to go to the doctor. It involves ripping off pensioners. It involves cutting $80 billion out of health and education. It involves ripping away Newstart benefits from young people. They will not accept it in the Senate. When the parliament and the people say no, they say, 'No, we're going to keep going.' That is what they say. This is what they say to the Australian people: 'We might not be able to implement it now.' But we know what they want in their hearts to do. They are making it very clear. If they ever have the numbers in the other place as well as in this, we know what they want to do. We know what they want to implement, and it is a very poor vision for Australia. (Time expired)

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