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

I beg your pardon. He was the Leader of the Opposition, but only just, in December. That would make up for my mistake. The Leader of the Opposition, as he now is, said that he would oppose any health reform plan that was released by the government. He has no intention of playing any constructive role in health reform. He did not do so as minister and he clearly is not going to now as opposition leader. When it comes to health reform, I fear he is a leopard who cannot change his spots.

The Leader of the Opposition, when he was the health minister, did see some of these problems. In fact, he is on the record as having called our health system and its funding arrangements a ‘dog’s breakfast’, but he took no action to fix any of the problems. I do have to confess to the parliament that when I was in opposition I used to wonder how the health minister had time—in fact, weeks at a time—to go off on bike rides around the country and to actually do his job. Now, as the health minister, I have uncovered the answer to that. It is simply because the Leader of the Opposition was not actually doing his day job. He was never interested in health reform. He had plenty of time to go off bike riding, just as he has had plenty of time to be out playing Leyland brothers this week—

See this speech in context