Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, in three years time; in 2013. The member for Dickson will understand that there is a need to be factually correct in his former job, and it is of some disappointment that the Liberal candidate, currently a policeman on the Central Coast, has been saying that this cancer institute being set up on the Central Coast that we have all campaigned so hard for will not be up and running for 10 years.

If this is evidence of the bona fides of this candidate, if he is prepared to lie outright in terms of what is actually happening, then it is a very sad reflection both on him personally and on the Liberal Party in relation to what lengths they will go to. We know that the Liberal Party and the truth are not comfortable bedfellows, but I think it is atrocious that we have a candidate in the field lying outright about a particular issue and saying that this cancer institute will not be up and running for 10 years when it was clearly announced by the Rudd government, by the Prime Minister himself, that it will be up and running in 2013.

It is a very sorry state when you have a candidate who pays no regard to the facts, no regard to the truth. This is a candidate that I expected more of. Both he and I are members of the Terrigal Surf Lifesaving Club, and we know each other well. It is very disappointing, and I can hopefully put it down to inexperience. It is very disappointing that he is making public comments without checking his facts and totally trying to mislead the local community in relation to this matter.

It is an example—unfortunately, a local example—of the type of approach we get from those opposite in relation to health. They will say anything. They will do anything to try and mislead, to put an oppositional position, in relation to what are great reforms, great advances, that this government is doing in taking on and trying to improve Australia’s health system. This bill is a small part of those reforms and one that I commend to the House.

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