John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am absolutely certain that the member for Fairfax would mean anything he said, because he speaks for his Queensland constituents with great eloquence. But I would have thought that what the Leader of the Opposition said is a very significant indictment of the Queensland Labor government. It is as simple as that. In the time that we have been in office, we have dramatically increased our spending on health. Just over one-fifth of the federal budget is to be spent on health and ageing in 2006-07. That is more than double the figure 10 years ago. GP bulk-billing rates are up to 76.9 per cent. We have spent more than $4 billion over five years on ‘Strengthening Medicare’, including the payments for bulk-billing children and concessional patients, and the safety net now covers 80 per cent of out-of-pocket non-hospital costs above the threshold. The Labor Party is against the safety net.

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