Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

They promised not to cut it, and they seek to cut it. I do have the main part of this bill to get to—and I have done a great deal of research on this—to prove even more so what a mess this portfolio is in. One is tempted to get bogged down in all of the other issues. I want to answer the interjection. We never cut the cataract rebate, and older people would be the main people affected by that. We never tried to cut $100 million from the chemotherapy budget. I need not say whom that will affect—cancer patients directly. We never tried to take choice from women. Senator Polley might be interested in this. I wonder if she ever spoke up in caucus about cutting the choice for women to have a home birth, denying them a home birth and making illegal the possibility of having a midwife. Did you speak up in caucus?