Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go again. The Labor government do not take no for an answer. Here they are again playing politics with our health system. They are playing politics to hide their failures in the health portfolio. Before the last election they promised the world, but they have delivered next to nothing. We have had review after review, reviews of the reviews and photo opportunities around Australia. We have had budget cuts to the health portfolio while the Rudd Labor government have been going on spending spree after spending spree in other parts of government. We have had cuts to chemotherapy treatment which, only because of the scrutiny of the Senate, we have had put on the backburner. We have had cuts to patient rebates for cataract surgery which, only because of the scrutiny of the Senate, the government have had to do a backflip on. We have had cuts to the Medicare safety net even though the government promised before the election that they would not cut the Medicare safety net. We have had a $740 million cut to spending on private health insurance rebates.