Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know it must really upset the shadow minister for health. I only have to refer to some of the research that has been done, including research that has been done by this parliament, when we put together the Beyond the blame game report. Many of the recommendations in that report were accepted by the government.

It is good to see that the shadow minister for health is in the chamber. He opposed the changes in relation to dental care that were a direct result of the report by the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing in 2006, which was a unanimous report. It was supported by all members of the committee including those from the other side of the chamber. To me it seems that we have such a negative opposition—an opposition that will object to anything at any time without putting in place sound reasons for their objections.

This is one of those pieces of legislation that will, yet again, focus the opposition on negativity—saying no and being obstructionist. There is only one opposition that I have ever known that has performed in this way. I know that when we were in opposition we tried to work things through and be positive so that we could deliver to the Australian people. Unlike us, the current opposition are just negative, negative, negative. And who suffers? The Australian people suffer. They do not get the health care that they need. To be so pedantic about the legislation that we have before us today beggars belief. I was really surprised to see the shadow minister speak as long as he did in relation to this because his contributions are usually fairly short and sharp. Obviously, when he can be negative about something, he gets in there for all he is worth.

The previous speaker was referring to the change in relation to human services. Currently under section 41C of the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973 it is an offence for any person other than the Commonwealth to use the name 'Medicare' or 'Medicare Australia' in connection with business, including in any trading name or any activity, implying it is in any way connected to the Commonwealth. The opposition have decided that this is one little area that they can be negative about. They are objecting to the fact that we have Medicare Locals, which are connected to Medicare and provide a very important adjunct to Medicare. The Medicare locals really—

See this speech in context