Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy President. I will direct my comments through the chair. Let me read briefly from the House of Representatives Hansard of 20 August 1991. I am happy to say I was at school at the time. This is what Brian Howe, the Labor Deputy Prime Minister and health minister, in 1991, said about the need for a Medicare co-payment in our country, 'Reforms to ensure that Medicare remains a sustainable, equitable and efficient universal health insurance system are important.' These are the Labor health minister's words in 1991, under the leadership of Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, advocating for a Medicare co-payment in our country. That is a fact.

That brings us to the second issue—one that we were debating today. Isn't it terrible that, as a result of the belligerence of Labor and others in this Senate in not allowing the government to work towards delivering a budget surplus, the government had to make changes to that budget? Yesterday we had Labor members and senators—and you heard them a few moments ago in this place—bemoaning the idea that a new tax was being introduced by this government. But what did they conceal? They concealed the fact that this tax, this fuel excise, was in fact brought in by the Hawke Labor government. Interestingly, in Senate debates you know you are hitting the mark when your opponents go quiet. Let me share with you what Mr Abbott said in the House of Representatives yesterday when talking about this alleged new tax. What did Mr Abbott say? This statement sums up the position perfectly—not surprisingly, as he is the leader, he is the Prime Minister—and exposes the Labor opposition. Mr Abbott said, 'It is not a new tax, it is an indexation of an old tax, a tax that was first introduced by the Hawke government.'