Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If the people of South Australia were wondering whom they should vote for on Saturday, that performance from Senator Fisher and a previous question from you, Mr Deputy President—as well as the bleatings earlier on today from Senator Birmingham about preference arrangements—would have probably consolidated in the minds of any South Australians who were in doubt that their vote should definitely go to the Rann Labor government. Their vote should go to the Rann Labor government because that government has delivered. That government is not full of weirdos, wackos, extremists and climate change deniers like we have seen here today. There was a question from you, Mr Deputy President, about preference arrangements and indeed you mentioned health care and asked why Labor was not preferencing a group—the group that purports to support the Royal Adelaide Hospital. That is because Labor in South Australia supports a health plan that includes the building of a new hospital. If you were really going to support health care in South Australia, you would most certainly support that plan. That gives me the opportunity to mention that in the last week the Rudd Labor government has made massive commitments to healthcare improvements in Australia and will be rolling those out, which of course will also benefit the people of South Australia.

Another reason why the people of South Australia should vote for the Rann Labor government is that you can trust the Rann Labor government. I like to posit here the comparison between what Mr Rann has delivered and the element of lack of trust in the federal opposition leader, Mr Abbott. Mr Abbott has a track record of backflipping and reverting to type in many areas. I mentioned health before, and, of course, he was the Minister for Health and Ageing in the former government for a period of time during which $1 billion was ripped out of the healthcare budget of Australia. Let us have a look at the statistics of what Mr Abbott did. He cut $108 million from public hospitals in 2003 and $172 million in 2004. In 2005 he cut $264 million out of Australia’s healthcare budget and a further $372 million in 2006, in what was, thankfully, his final year as health minister. We have more evidence of Mr Abbott’s untrustworthiness in the area of industrial relations. We know that he has had a conversion on the road to Damascus in a number of areas, but let us not forget that Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party and all those Liberals sitting on the opposite side of the chamber are absolute rusted-on supporters of Work Choices. If the people of South Australia want to posit what would happen if the Liberals got back in South Australia, they could be sure that the Liberals in South Australia would support a federal Liberal government—if we were to have one, God forbid—in bringing back Work Choices; that is what they are about.

Finally, I will mention another magnificent backflip on the part of Tony Abbott.