Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

That is what she said just before the election when they were pitching to come into government. What did they do? They cut $4½ billion from private health insurance; they cut $2½ billion from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme; they cut $1 billion from dental care by cutting chronic disease dental care—by axing a scheme for chronic disease dental care. Why? Because it was too successful. What a commitment to dental care! They cut $664 million from the Medicare Benefits Schedule for GPs; they cut $500 million from pathology; they cut $450 million from the Medicare Safety Net. And then we have the grand daddy of all of their deceptions: they used to talk a lot about $57 billion in hospitals. Well, they had their chance. This shadow minister took a policy to the election—they had been talking about $57 billion—and they put in $2 billion. That is a four per cent success rate; 96 per cent fail rate. In anybody's language, that constitutes a fail unless, of course, you are Senator Kitching filling in a Health Services Union workplace safety test for a few friends. So they had a four per cent—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat.

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