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

every year that it will need to run public hospitals? What legal power does the Commonwealth have to coerce the states, as it will assuredly need to do when they refuse to cooperate? Most importantly, how much money does the Leader of the Opposition expect to save by ending duplication? How much money will he save and how many staff does he expect will be made redundant? These are serious questions and the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister cannot be taken seriously unless they answer them.

They were asked some of these questions the other day by Rhianna King of the West Australian newspaper, who said in her subsequent report of the member for Lalor:

She was unable to answer the questions, with a spokesman saying only that a range of factors would be considered.

Labor was also unable to say what would happen if some States signed up to the plan but others refused. And there were no details on the plan for regional and local authorities to manage hospitals in the event of a Federal takeover, with a spokesman saying only that the landscape would be reexamined in 2009.

The Australian people deserve better than that. They are talking about 750 institutions vital to the health and welfare of the Australian people. These are real hospitals, serving real patients, employing real staff, and those people need some answers. Maybe they can contract Barry Jones to provide a few answers, because ‘noodle nation’ will be a model of simplicity compared to the complexity of trying to take over 750 public hospitals. I know what I am talking about because I have thought this through in a way that members opposite have not. Unless they can come up with the detail on how this might happen, they will be exposed as complete and utter frauds, phoneys and charlatans who are more interested in a headline than a health service.

See this speech in context