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

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question. I am delighted to get a question about health spending. As finance minister, it seems beyond the capability of the opposition to ask any questions of anybody about health matters—so I am delighted to have the opportunity to address them.

In recent days in the chamber there has been some controversy about the 2003 budget papers: Did the Howard government, or did it not, cut funding for public hospitals for a period of five years, the vast bulk of which was under the stewardship of the now Leader of the Opposition, the then health minister? The Leader of the Opposition is extremely agitated about this question, even more agitated than he usually is. We have had him taking points of order. We have had them moving gag motions on the Prime Minister. We have had personal explanations. We have had fancy charts being waved around in the chamber over several days. He and his team are extremely agitated about this point. There is one aspect of the debate that has not had a great deal of focus—

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