Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Midwife Professional Indemnity Legislation Amendment Bill 2011. The member for Dickson urged us to put more money into hospitals, doctors, nurses and the health system generally. This is a bit rich coming from those opposite, when the Institute of Health and Welfare in October 2007 produced a damning report on the state of the health and hospital system in this country under the tutelage of the then minister, who happens to be the opposition leader, and he was a longstanding health minister at that time. The institute damned the Howard coalition government, saying that they had actually defunded, vis-a-vis the states and territories and the private health sector, health and hospital funding in this country. Even the now opposition leader—and we have had about three of them since 2007—at that time actually admitted during a campaign that was not one of his best and finest performances in terms of timeliness and preparedness to debate issues, particularly with the now Minister for Health—

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