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

If you moved all of health and all of education to the federal government, you might as well wind up the federation. Let us inject a little bit of reality. I have never disguised the fact that if we were starting this country again we would not have the system of government we have, with states and the Commonwealth, but we are not starting it again. We are charged with the pragmatic responsibility of making the thing work well. You make it work well, irrespective of the political composition of the governments in power at a state and federal level. You make it work well by the Commonwealth doing the things it is meant to do, and we are certainly doing that with Medicare.

Nobody knows that better than the member for Lalor. She has been pretty quiet on Medicare over the last couple of years. My colleague has done such a good job—with a lot of help from the Treasurer, who has written out quite a number of cheques for Medicare—that we are the best friend Medicare has. We are the only friend that private health insurance has. Private health insurance is an orphan as far as Labor is concerned. My advice to the member for Lalor, the putative spokesperson on industrial relations—I do not think she is going to do Treasury—is: if you want the federation to work better, stick to your last. Get the states to do better what they are meant to do. Follow what we are doing—get the states to better fund their responsibilities in areas like health and education—and we will all live happily ever after.

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