Alan Cadman (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister update the House on the government’s investment in the Medicare system, particularly for older Australians? Are there any alternative policies?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mitchell for his question. This government does not just talk about Medicare; we spend the money necessary to make a good system even better. Since 1996 health spending has risen from 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the federal budget. Since 1996 federal health spending has risen from 3.7 to 4.3 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product. It is not the quantity of the spend but the quality of the outcome that counts. And, since 1996, we have 30 per cent more medical students and 30 per cent more GPs in training. Bulk-billing rates for children are at an all-time high, bulk-billing rates in the country are at an all-time high and bulk-billing rates for people over 65 are at near-record levels.

I have been asked about alternative policies. Just after he was restored to the leadership, the Leader of the Opposition said Medicare Gold ‘disappeared with Mark’. That is what he told the Sunday Telegraph on 30 January last year. It certainly has not disappeared from Labor’s website. I looked on Labor’s website today and I found something called ‘Labor’s principles’ and the only health policy is Medicare Gold. So who is in charge—the member for Lalor or the member for Brand? It seems that he can stop the member for Lalor asking questions in parliament, but he cannot get her policy off his website. He took 14 minutes to get Latham’s T-shirt off the website, but in 14 months he has not been able to get Gillard’s policy off the website. We know what the member for Brand thinks of these policies. They are lightweight and banal—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order under standing order 104.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler would have heard that the minister was asked, amongst other things, about alternative policies. He is entirely in order.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know that the Leader of the Opposition thinks that the member for Lalor’s policies are lightweight and banal, because Michael Costello published that in the paper last week. But the member for Lalor has one thing right: in her notorious Sydney Institute speech the other week, she said, ‘If you can’t run a political party, you certainly can’t run this country.’ I call on the Leader of the Opposition to clarify just who is really in charge of Labor’s health policy.