Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Rudd and his friends pine for the days when Cyndi Lauper was on top of the charts. They remember—Mr Rudd, Tanya Plibersek and the rest of the Labor Party brains trust—the days when Mick Young was struggling with a Paddington bear. A lot of us remember those days. That is when the Medicare card was invented, and that is what the Labor Party think we should stick by. We think that in a society where identity fraud is becoming a major problem—as Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says, between $1 billion and $4 billion is being ripped out of the system—we can design a better system.

The Labor Party is all over the place on this. Senator Mason asks us: is there an alternative policy? There are dozens of alternative policies. Talk about the signs of an inexperienced opposition that cannot get its act together! This is worse than Mr Latham and his Medicare Gold, which was just throwing money at everyone—it did not matter whether they were sick or they had cancer. This is Medicare Gold all over again. You have Kelvin Thomson, the former shadow minister, saying the smart card is a good idea, you have Wayne Swan in Queensland saying it is a good idea, but down in Sydney you have Tanya Plibersek saying, ‘No, we’re against it,’ and that people will be ripped off Medicare lists and young people will not be able to get Medicare. As Senator Scullion said earlier, Labor is spreading misinformation about this, trying to scare young people into believing that they will miss out on Medicare because of the smart card, when the smart card is all about ensuring that young people do get their Medicare.

The Labor Party are all over the place on this. I asked the Queensland transport minister, who is bringing in a smart card for Queensland and who wants to cooperate with the Commonwealth on this, to tell his comrade Mr Rudd to pull Comrade Plibersek into line on this. They are all over the place. It is a sign of inexperience. It is a sign that they have not moved on from the Latham period. (Time expired)