Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure it would facilitate the House if we had additional contributions to take us up to question time. I take the opportunity provided by the bill to pass comment on, and to express shock and amazement at, the health minister’s attitude towards the funding of a Medicare licence for Newcastle and the Hunter region’s PET scanner. I cannot believe two things: first of all, that the health minister continues to deny the residents of the Hunter region the opportunity to access that PET scanner and, second, his decision to ridicule the Labor Party for its decision to make that very commitment. I put it to the minister: why is it that the residents of the Hunter region cannot have access to a PET scanner when residents elsewhere in the country can?

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