Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Gillard government’s health and hospital reform package is a crucial step forward in delivering much needed funding to Australia’s health and hospital system. Those opposite, of course, have opposed this move to deliver increased funding to the Australian hospital system. But this should come as no surprise, of course. As we all know, the record of the Leader of the Opposition—Mr Tony Abbott—on health and hospital reform as the previous Minister for Health ripped $1 billion out of the health and hospital system.

Of course, this was $1 billion that could have been spent on hospital beds and acute care facilities; $1 billion that could have been spent on training doctors and nurses, and funding X-ray machines and cancer clinics. We on this side are acting to deliver much needed health and hospital funding for the benefit of Australians.