Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why did the Prime Minister promise 'no cuts to health' the night before the election and then cut $50 billion from hospitals after the election?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no truth whatsoever in the Leader of the Opposition's assertion. I fear he has been as truthful with the parliament today as he was with Neil Mitchell a couple of years ago. But, for the benefit of the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite, let me repeat: over the next four years, there will be a 25 per cent increase in public hospital funding—a 25 per cent increase in public hospital funding. Public hospital funding will be $3.8 billion more over the next four years.

If the Leader of the Opposition is serious, if he seriously thinks that there has been a $50 billion cut to public hospitals, I have a very simple challenge to him: put the money back. If he seriously believes that $50 billion has been cut out of public hospital funding, if he seriously believes that public hospitals are going to be $50 billion short, there is only one thing that in conscience he can do: put the money back. If he is not prepared to put the money back, this line of questioning is simply fraudulent.

And yet again we see a Leader of the Opposition, and an opposition more generally, which is simply floundering. They are simply floundering. They do not know what they believe in. They do not know where they stand. And over the last couple of weeks they have been outdone, when it comes to fiscal responsibility, by the Greens. I do hope, as we go into the winter recess, that members opposite will have a long, hard look at themselves and repledge themselves to being a responsible political party, not just on national security but also on economic security, because this country needs responsible opposition. This country needs a responsible Labor Party. This country needs a Labor Party in the best tradition of Hawke and Keating, but that is not what we have got now.