Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As the Leader of the Opposition knows full well, what was untrue was what he said on the Alan Jones program about when this change occurred. In the 1996-97 budget papers there was not a billion-dollar removal from the health program. There was a removal of about $300 million—that is true. What he was seeking to do on that occasion was simply to cover up what he had done and was responsible for, and he was subsequently found out for it.

It is not just that those opposite are so sensitive on health policy and so sensitive on the question of how you deal with a record which has a billion dollars being ripped out of the system; it goes to the credibility of those opposite on the question of policy in general. What we have seen so far from those opposite is every degree of sensitivity about any policy concerning health. We have seen where that went in recent days on paid parental leave—that great policy announcement which emerged from nowhere about a week or so ago. It rose as this great, bright shining beacon of new policy from those opposite and then it disappeared without a trace.

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