Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I often find it instructive to come into the chamber a little before my allotted speaking time to listen to the opposition member in the same debate, just to hear what they're saying, and it was absolute patent nonsense from the member for Sturt. To pick up a point from his delivery, he talked about the so-called 'Mediscare' campaign of 2016. I remember that election campaign well. It was the campaign in which I got elected to this place for the first time.

People might not remember, but the Liberal government at the time had an actual taskforce called the Medicare services privatisation taskforce. So the then Labor opposition's campaign about the Liberals wanting to privatise Medicare was not a scare campaign; it was a truth campaign. The Liberal government at the time actually had a Medicare services privatisation taskforce—20 people, with a budget of $5 million, to look at privatising the payments system of Medicare, which is in the billions of dollars. It was not a scare campaign; it was absolute fact.

I take that from the member for Sydney. Thank you, Member for Sydney.

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