Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

to support a modest copayment on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, how can it not be right and proper to support an equally modest copayment on Medicare?

I can tell you why the government has done a number of tough and difficult things in this budget. We have done tough and difficult things because we want to restore the budget to balance and eventually to surplus, and once upon a time even the member for Ballarat thought that was a good policy. She said two years ago:

The Government is delivering a surplus with targeted and responsible savings while protecting the frontline services Australians rely on and helping families with cost of living pressures.

We are doing exactly the same thing.

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