Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that the policy work on the $20 billion medical research fund did not begin until April this year, just weeks before the budget was released? Does this confirm that the Prime Minister is just making this budget up as he goes along?

Mr Hockey interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer will desist!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the Leader of the Opposition is trying to suggest that somehow a six-week gestation period was inadequate—this from a political party that cooked up the National Broadband Network on the back of a coaster on a VIP flight. Really and truly! The Medical Research Future Fund is a policy based on endowment funds that were created under the former government and for which there is an abundance of precedent in Australian government. If members opposite were more interested in government and less interested in grandstanding, and if they were more interested in policy and less interested in politicking, they would know that well.