Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It does not come from a focus group, Member for Wakefield; it comes from a dedicated researcher in the opposition and they have been working very hard. What it shows me is that in January this year we had one mention of the word ‘decisive’ from those on the other side. In October this year that blew out to 156 mentions of ‘decisive’. I even have it in graph form for the members on the other side to see. We had ‘decisive’ once in January but 156 times in October. It dropped off in November—they did not meet their benchmarks and their pollster would not be happy. It was 111 in November, and so far in the one and a half sitting days of December we have had five mentions.

I am honoured by the presence of the Prime Minister, who, of course, promised us last year in relation to health that the buck would stop with him. We have seen today that he is moving away from that promise. We have seen the removal from the website of the language about the buck stopping with him. That is very consistent with the strategy of last week of dropping in a mention of the fact that there will be a temporary deficit. Now we have changed our minds about the buck stopping with Labor—we have changed our minds on this one as well because we know we just cannot do it. We just cannot clean up the mess that the state governments have created on this issue.

Let us not divert the blame here. The state governments are wholly and solely responsible for public health and they have not done the right thing by this system in the last 10 years. They have destroyed the system. The Prime Minister has entered the House. He should tell this House that the buck still stops with him when it comes to health. He can use the word ‘decisive’ and boost the numbers if he likes. We have five so far in December; we have a target of 157 to create the record for the year. It is going to be tough in December because we do not have as many sitting days. But, if the truth be told, this government is the most spin doctored government in the history of the Commonwealth. The Prime Minister is the most spin related Prime Minister in the history of this Commonwealth. He has no substance to him, which is a great pity for the Australian people. (Time expired)

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