Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Many ideas about future policies in health have come to the coalition during the course of my consultations, and direct billing has been one of them. Direct billing looks different in different circumstances. It is a policy idea that, as I said, has been around for a long time. It is one of many ideas that have come to me from across the country. I make absolutely no apology for considering every idea that comes across my desk and listening to everything that is presented or for looking at the context in which we as a parliament should all try to make Medicare sustainable.

At the moment, the opposition have no ideas in this space. They are a policy-free zone. When I go back and look to see what ideas they might have had in the past all I can come up with is something that the member for Ballarat should be familiar with, which is the super epic GP superclinics fail which was investigated by the Auditor-General, a body with which the member for Ballarat should be eminently familiar. It made some very clear points about Labor policy failures in the past, so do not criticise us about constructive policy formation.

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