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

I was saying that, to his great credit, the current member for Hotham does support private health insurance. When he was the leader, he said: ‘I accept that families have factored into their budgets the cost of private health insurance and I am not going to disadvantage them.’ Well, good on the member for Hotham. In fact, it is precisely because of these sorts of attitudes towards private health insurance that I am sure his friend the member for Batman said:

Simon Crean is the most honest and sincere leader of any political party in the last 50 years.

I beg to differ. There have been more honest and more sincere leaders of some political parties in the last 50 years. After listening to what the Leader of the Opposition has said today, I certainly think the member for Hotham is the best leader Labor has had in the last five years.

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