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

The reason is that Labor left us with $370 billion worth of debt. That is a problem, isn't it? The problem is that Labor spent money in the Health portfolio on building bureaucracies and on services that were not directly benefiting patients. And, yes, we have got tough decisions to make as a government. There is no secret about that. The argument that is being put forward by the opposition really tries to hide the fact that we have not only a Department of Health but also 21 outside agencies, many of them created by the previous government; and, if we want to make sure that we can get money to patients, get better health outcomes and deal with Labor's debt at the same time, then we have to make tough decisions.

See this speech in context