Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As you know and as I know the minister knows, I was elected only in September. My background is not political. Unlike those opposite and a lot of those around me, while I was lucky enough to go to university, I did not join Young Liberal or Young Labor. I left university and started working at my father's business, as the third generation of my family to do so. I did not join an industry association or a union. I did not become a political staffer. I did not move to an area where there was a safe seat to be won. I got on, raised my kids and worked in my father's business.

I want to thank those sitting opposite because two years ago they inspired me. For 41 years I sat on the sidelines and did not get involved. They inspired me to get involved. For 41 years I took on bank debt, I backed myself and I employed people. When I left my father, we had a big family business—one I am very proud to have played some small part in. But what I learned from my father is that budgets are worth the paper they are written on. They are a guide. And if those opposite can find me a bank that will lend on a budget, I would love to find out what it is so I could tell my father and he could go to a bank and get a loan.

What we deal with in business is actuals and historicals, not forecasts—they can be made to look like what you want them to look like. And those opposite inspired me in a very clear way. We are here to talk about health tonight, and in 2007-08 the health budget was $40 billion. In 2013-14, under their hand, not ours, it was $64.5 billion. That is a 45 per cent increase in six years. They are historicals, and they are actuals. Forget the argument about PEFO, MYEFO, or any EFOs they want. They can argue till they are blue in the face but they are historicals and they own them. But here is the kicker: I got into politics for the sake of my kids and my grandkids. And, as I said, those opposite inspired me because under their stewardship I did not know what this country would look like for my kids and my grandkids. It is fair to say, after 41 years of sitting on the sidelines, I thought they were doing a pretty ordinary job. And those figures would indicate that: they are quite clearly not sustainable.

The minister finds himself in the situation where he has to do something, because it is not sustainable. And every day as I sit in that chamber—the green one—I sit and listen to barbs from the other side such as from the member for Wakefield. I keep going to historicals because in business you live and die by numbers. The other day the member for Wakefield yelled, 'That's what the Medicare levy is for,' as the minister spoke. This year Medicare will cost $21 billion and the Medicare levy will raise $10 billion. We will raise $164 billion in income tax. If we were to increase the Medicare levy for just this year alone to cover the shortfall, it would mean a 6.25 per cent increase just this year—that is the bad news. It had to increase every year in the forward estimates.

But here is the kicker of what those opposite did. It is a standard convention that you budget for four years—this year and three forward estimate years. Those opposite were so inept and so incompetent and so not wanting any scrutiny that they went outside the four-year convention—an electoral cycle is three—and went to 10 years. I heard the member for Ballarat so eloquently reel off years 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, but guess what? That is not how the system works, and they know it. It was a fraud; it was a con to get re-elected. The electorate saw through it, and it is now our job to dispel that myth. This is quite clearly unsustainable. I applaud the minister for the steps he is taking to make it sustainable for the sake of my kids and my grandkids, who are the drivers for what I do.

My question to the minister at the end of that amble is: with growing demand for health and hospital services in my electorate—and it is most aptly served by Concord Hospital—given the incompetence and the mismanagement we endured for six years, can the minister update the House on the government's approach to improving links between primary care and hospitals to help improve the sustainability of the health system and give my kids and grandkids the chance to use it at some stage in the future?

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