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

and I said that I would first deal with Labor’s policy and then I would deal with the government’s. The question I put, rhetorically, to the Leader of the Opposition is: if you are going to take over 762 public hospitals, you have to explain to the Australian public how you are going to fund that takeover. Either you must take billions of dollars away from the states—and I know that you would not have the guts to take a penny away from a state Labor Premier—or, alternatively, you should concede that, in government, you might unite with Labor premiers to increase the level of the GST. It has been calculated that you would need a 40 per cent rise in the GST in order to fund this takeover. The Leader of the Opposition cannot slide away from public scrutiny on this policy. It is not enough—

See this speech in context