Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I point out for the benefit of the House that I am in fact quoting from Howard government budget papers. I will start the sequence again. The forward estimates for spending on public hospitals were reduced for the year 2003-04 by $109 million, for the year 2004-05 by $172 million, for the year 2005-06 by $265 million and for the year 2006-07 by $373 million. A quick calculation shows that they add up to roughly $920 million, so not quite $1 billion and the Leader of the Opposition was not health minister for the first three months of that period. However, the agreement was for five years and according to the department the cut in the forward estimates for 2007-08 was $497 million. Even though the Leader of the Opposition was only minister for the first half of that period, whichever way you do the sums on this it is absolutely plain on the budget record of the Howard government that the Leader of the Opposition, as health minister, presided over more than $1 billion being ripped out of the projected forward spending estimates for the public hospitals of Australia. It is there in black and white on page 179 of Budget Paper No. 2 2003-04 circulated by the Hon. Peter Costello and the Hon. Nick Minchin. In case they really need it explained I will table the budget paper—

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