Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Hume banging on about these things. He will get his turn. You will get your turn, Shooting Star. You will get your turn as you are in and out through the chamber. It was a stellar career, and I watched it with some interest! Before that redistribution came along, it was a fine career!

The thing about the government's approach to Health is it is badly undermining people's confidence in the healthcare sector. You cannot find a GP in my electorate nor, I would imagine, in many others who is happy with the performance of this government who feels like it has a commitment to good public health. What we see is cut after cut after cut. What we see are opaque deals. What we see is cost being pushed onto consumers. What we see are cuts to public hospitals and other preventative health care—drug and alcohol counselling; you name it, they have cut it. It is a very, very serious thing.

For this government to be lauding their record on Health is ludicrous. We know that, historically, this has always been the case. They have been hostile to universal health care, and they have been hostile to Medicare. But we have rarely seen such aggression from a federal government towards health care professionals, towards the basic infrastructure that keeps people healthy in this country. The opposition will be holding them to account for the effects of their legislation and their deals out there in the community.

It does not matter whether it is in the electorate of Hume or in my home town of Kapunda, or anywhere else—people who can least afford it will often feel the sting of this government's budget, the sting of their policies in health care. That situation should not be allowed to stand, and I say bring on an election and let us have a proper referendum on what this government says and does. We know they were full of promises before the last election. I often refer to Real Solutions. If you look at Real Solutions—

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