Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I will not delay the House but I want to make a contribution to this debate on the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009. We do welcome the bill and the changes that will flow from it, but I want to highlight the faux campaign that has been run over recent days by the Minister for Health and Ageing and the Prime Minister suggesting—the minister’s own words in question time yesterday suggested this—that somehow the coalition was anti-nurse. This is such a ridiculous claim—false, misleading and completely without foundation. At no time did the coalition say that we would oppose the bill. Despite that, the minister—much to the dismay of many of the stakeholders within the industry, I might say—put out a press release and made public comments suggesting that we were going to block or not support the bill. That is again completely misleading.

Why, people might ask, would the minister mislead and try to create a faux campaign in relation to this very important issue? There are issues which we have addressed, but one which I think goes towards answering that question is this very important point: this minister is trying to create an atmosphere at the moment for people to believe that the coalition did nothing when we were in government in relation to health—which of course is a nonsense. This minister is trying to make people believe that we are against the provisions within this bill. That is a nonsense. The minister is trying to create an atmosphere of fear within the health community and to distract from the failings of this government, in particular in the health portfolio, in its first two years. There are lots of claims being spread about quite maliciously by the health minister and the Prime Minister at the moment in relation to midwives, nurses and the record of the—

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