Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. I refer him to his press conference on 26 April in which he announced the sale of Medibank Private. Minister, isn’t it a fact that Medibank Private has sent this brief to public relations firms, asking them to tender to run a PR campaign called ‘Project good guys’, which would ‘advise on reputation matters throughout the highly changeable privatisation period’? Minister, what is ‘Project good guys’ costing and what upwards pressure will it put on Medibank Private members’ premiums?

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

The drought has broken. This is the first question on health since 5 September last year—nine months without a question. They say they are interested in health, but it has been nine months without a question. I think Medibank Private are good guys—very good guys indeed. They provide private health insurance to something like three million Australians—very good guys indeed. But I say that they will do an even better job in the future than they have done in the past. I commend the privatisation to members opposite.