Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I note that on the doors today the Leader of the Opposition was sliding around a bit and he said:

At one stage there was an adjustment to the forward estimates…

The facts are very clear. The previous budget projected a certain level of forward spending on public hospitals. The Howard government introduced the private health insurance rebate and cut that projected spending to the tune of over $1 billion over the period for which the Leader of the Opposition was health minister. No amount of slick and slimy sophistry can change the truth that every time he gets up and does a personal explanation on these issues he is deliberately and directly misrepresenting the facts. The truth is that the Howard government with the Leader of the Opposition as health minister ripped out over $1 billion from projected public hospital funding and he is nothing other than a complete policy fraud. If he spent more time focusing on patients and less time buffing up his pecs for the cameras we might treat him seriously.

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