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

I withdraw. The shadow minister has, every time that we have debated this measure in the House, walked straight out the door and straight to talk to Mr Broderick to find out if he has followed his instructions properly or not.

What we have seen after the budget is a number of people in the Liberal Party understanding that not only is this an effective health measure, and perhaps it is silly to be standing in the way of it, but also in these global financial circumstances it might not be so bright to be standing in the way of a sensible health measure that has a budgetary impact. So there were some indications from the Leader of the Opposition and from a number of others that maybe there was an opportunity to change this. But we have seen Mr Dutton, the shadow minister, out there, still arguing to the death that this should not be supported.

Then we saw a slight change; they were buying a little bit of time. We heard some speculation in the media that the opposition wanted to see the details of what we were doing. They were pretending, it seems, that they needed more information before they could try and sort out what they were going to do. What I want to know is what it actually is that the Liberal Party is waiting for. This legislation was introduced five months ago, in February this year. Prior to that it was the subject of a Senate inquiry. Then there was a second Senate inquiry. It was debated and voted upon in the Senate on 18 March. We announced on 15 April that the government would reintroduce that same legislation. And then what happened? We still had the member for Dickson saying he wants a little bit more information—he just wants to see the legislation. I do not know why he needs to look at it yet again, but he needs to have a look at it again. In May, we offered the member for Dickson another briefing with the same legislation. It is entertaining but embarrassingly wrong, because it is the same legislation that has been introduced.

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