Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing in the Senate, Senator Ludwig. Can the minister confirm that before the last election Mr Rudd promised, ‘I’ll take responsibility for fixing our hospital system,’ and further said, ‘The buck will stop with me’? Can the minister also confirm that prior to the last election Mr Rudd promised to take over public hospitals if the states and territories had not begun implementing a national health reform plan by mid-2009? Does the minister concede that this promise, particularly the timing of it, has been spectacularly broken, and will he tell the Senate why?