Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Hansard source

The backbencher there has just told me that I've been very naughty! Well, I'm very happy to be very naughty when it comes to actually standing up for Medicare, because it's actually one of the most important systems that we have in this country. The fact that the government has decimated it and continues to do that every day is something that should be called out. They might behave themselves for a little while when it comes to Medicare, but we actually know how much the Australian people need Medicare. Those opposite might agree for a little while, but we know that they constantly undermine this system.

Australians certainly sent that message loud and clear at the last election when the government was plotting to outsource parts of the Medicare system to the private sector. That is what they were doing. Labor, of course—

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