Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister's answer consistent with the health minister's press release of this morning saying she would look into that, accepting that there will be increases that are difficult for patients? Is the minister also aware that St Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital in our home state of Queensland will face increased costs of between $800,000 and $1 million, and has warned of the possible closure of its cancer clinic? Why is the government abandoning vulnerable cancer patients in its increasingly desperate bid to return the budget to a surplus?