Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the remarks of his Minister for Health and Ageing on 4 September 2005. He said:

… sooner or later the blame game has got to end and the only way that that will happen is if one level of government is in charge.

Of course he was referring to our health system. Prime Minister, why is your health minister wrong?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the blame game should stop, and the blame game stops when each level of government properly funds and properly operates—

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Ripoll interjecting

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

The member for Oxley is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the responsibilities given to it by the Australian Constitution. That is where you stop the blame game. Let me make it very clear. My colleague—my esteemed colleague, my valued colleague; a colleague for whom I have great affection—the Minister for Health and Ageing has said things about the Commonwealth taking over public hospitals. That is not my view. I believe state hospitals are best run by state governments, and if you are interested in cooperative federalism the last thing you do is give total responsibility to the Commonwealth government for fundamental areas like health.

Michael Hatton (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hatton interjecting

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

The member for Blaxland is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you moved all of health and all of education to the federal government, you might as well wind up the federation. Let us inject a little bit of reality. I have never disguised the fact that if we were starting this country again we would not have the system of government we have, with states and the Commonwealth, but we are not starting it again. We are charged with the pragmatic responsibility of making the thing work well. You make it work well, irrespective of the political composition of the governments in power at a state and federal level. You make it work well by the Commonwealth doing the things it is meant to do, and we are certainly doing that with Medicare.

Nobody knows that better than the member for Lalor. She has been pretty quiet on Medicare over the last couple of years. My colleague has done such a good job—with a lot of help from the Treasurer, who has written out quite a number of cheques for Medicare—that we are the best friend Medicare has. We are the only friend that private health insurance has. Private health insurance is an orphan as far as Labor is concerned. My advice to the member for Lalor, the putative spokesperson on industrial relations—I do not think she is going to do Treasury—is: if you want the federation to work better, stick to your last. Get the states to do better what they are meant to do. Follow what we are doing—get the states to better fund their responsibilities in areas like health and education—and we will all live happily ever after.