Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to get that question from my friend the member for Werriwa, because the Labor Party have no prouder legacy than our contribution to universal health coverage in this country, particularly through the twin pillars of the PBS and Medicare, great Labor initiatives opposed vigorously by the Liberal Party at the time—in Medicare's case, literally for decades. Who can forget the father of the modern Liberal Party, John Howard, with a straight face describing Medicare as one of the great failures of the Hawke government? That is why it has been the duty of every incoming health minister of the Labor Party—Doug Everingham, Neal Blewett, Nicola Roxon—to confront and clean up the mess left by their Liberal Party predecessors, and it's exactly the same this time.

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