Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

While members opposite are terribly embarrassed—understandably embarrassed—by the Prime Minister’s record in health, in public hospitals when he was Director-General of the Queensland Public Service, let me make these important points: what do our public hospitals right around Australia need right now? First, they need more beds and, second, they need local control. What did the Prime Minister do when he was the top public servant in Queensland? The first thing he did was to cut 2,200 beds out of public hospitals—a great record! Some hero, some Mr Fixit he was in Queensland. The second thing he did in Queensland was to abolish the local boards. This is typical of this hypocrite and phoney whom we have in the highest elected office in this country. He stands up, puts his hand on his heart and says, ‘I’ve always supported local control of public hospitals.’ Wrong. He abolished the public hospital boards, which had done a substantially good job in Queensland for many decades. That was almost the first thing he did when he became Queensland’s top public servant.

Because this Prime Minister is a man who is slippery with the truth, he tries to avoid the legitimate questions that are put to him by not just members on this side of the parliament but even the state Labor Premiers. I put the questions to him that he needs to address in the 10-minute speech that he is about to make. Who will administer the casemix funding system that he says is the salvation of the public hospital system? Don’t yawn, Prime Minister; answer the question. Don’t stare at your notes; listen. Make some notes and you might actually be able to answer this question. Who will administer the casemix system? What is going to happen to the public servants currently with the Victorian government who understand it? Will they march en masse to Canberra? How are the local hospital networks going to be established? Who will run them? Will they be determined by federal law and federal regulation or will it be entirely a matter for the states? If the states do not actually meet the requirements to put in 40 per cent of funding, what penalties will be imposed on them? Does he give a guarantee that no country hospital will close as a result of his casemix funding? That is the question on the lips of just about every person in rural Australia right now. Will their public hospital be safe under the amateur hour experimentation that they will get from this Prime Minister, who could not even organise to give pink batts away almost for free? These are the questions that this Prime Minister has to answer. Above all else, what is going to happen to the funding now we know that he is going to confiscate 30 per cent of the state’s GST funding? How can we be confident that this Prime Minister will be any better using GST money on health than he was using tax funding on home insulation or Building the Education Revolution?

The Premiers know that they cannot trust this man. That is why they are not prepared to sign up to his hospital plan until they have seen the details. They know they cannot trust this man. That is why they are not prepared to sign up until they have seen the Henry review. They do not think they can trust this Prime Minister and, if his own Labor Premiers do not trust him, why should I trust him and why should the Australian people trust him?

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