Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I place on record on behalf of the opposition that this is now the second time that the Senate has voted down a massive reduction in patient rebates for cataract surgery through Medicare which has been pursued in a cold-hearted fashion by the Rudd Labor government. You would have thought that Nicola Roxon would have got the message the first time round. But, even though she has known since 8 September 2009 that she did not have the support of the Senate for the cold-hearted cuts in cataract surgery rebates, she pressed ahead.