Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry that has come as a surprise to you, but it is true and I am prepared to admit that—at a safe distance across the table. I think there is an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to be prepared to step outside a mould which has just been vandalism in the Senate for the last period of time. There is an opportunity to say, ‘We can do things differently.’ But he will not be able to do it if he is going to trash everything he has ever believed in before—and that includes the republic. It is but one issue amongst many, but it is a sign that he is going to be a hollow leader. It is a sign that he is not going to be prepared to stand for anything seriously, and I think that is a real problem for us and for the country.

I want to take this opportunity to ask the parliament to encourage the Leader of the Opposition to reconsider three measures: one that was rejected by the Senate yesterday, one that will be voted on by the Senate in the coming weeks and one that will be before the Senate in the next few months. These measures relate to dental care, the Medicare levy surcharge and the alcopops excise—a mixture of measures that (1) provide relief to working families’, (2) provide relief to pensioners and (3) help us battle the scourge of binge drinking in this country. I think if we are going to be serious about this, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to say that he comes from humble means and is not representing privilege, he has an opportunity to distance himself from industry. He has the opportunity to say, ‘I don’t have to take this view on alcopops just because the distillers tell us this,’ and ‘I don’t have to take this view on the Medicare levy surcharge just because the insurers tell us to do that.’ I am not sure who it is that is telling them to defend the dental program the way they are. I suspect it is just a hangover from 12 years of a determination to ignore our public dental schemes across the country. But there is an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to take a different view. He has not, so far, but there is time for him to do that.

Over the next couple of days, the Leader of the Opposition will have had time to settle into his position and to decide who is going to be on the front bench. I did wonder whether those who were in here listening to the new leader were all jockeying to get their new positions and get a chance. I did see that the member for Ryan was here—perhaps hoping that this was his opportunity to move onto the front bench—and that everybody is sticking close to the Leader of the Opposition, just for this period of time. Unfortunately, I have more experience in leadership challenges than I would have chosen to have had, and I can tell the Leader of the Opposition that the next couple of days before he announces his frontbench will be the only period of time that everybody in his party will be happy with what he is doing. So he should make the most of it and actually announce a few of the policies that he as the leader believes in—actually stamp his mark now while he has a chance, before he has industry telling him what he has to do and before he has some of his frontbench saying, ‘Defend the Howard legacy at all costs.’ If we are going to deal with the great challenges that face us, I hope that we will hear from the Leader of the Opposition a little bit more about health and education and a little bit less about— (Time expired)

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