Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The greatest threat to the wonderful healthcare system we have in Australia at the moment is exemplified by the speech that anyone who might have been listening has just heard, from a Labor politician who lives in fantasy land and will say anything and do anything and use every emotive word, no matter how untrue, to try to fool the Australian public to believe the Labor line.

The facts—the actual numbers, the figures—prove the lie to everything that you have just heard from the previous speaker. First of all—and I know that my colleagues have raised this, as has been explained countless times at question time—the proposal in the green paper is one of many proposals for discussion, requested by the state premiers, including three or four who are Labor premiers. You have all heard, and I will not repeat again, how Mr Jay Weatherill, the Labor Premier of South Australia, has congratulated the government on this white paper. It does not necessarily mean that the option that talks about more Commonwealth spending and less state spending will happen. It does not necessarily mean that the option of more state spending and less Commonwealth spending will happen. These are just two alternatives that the state premiers asked to be put in the discussion paper. That is what happened

So, in spite of explicit evidence not just from Liberal and National Party ministers and leaders but from Labor Party premiers—in spite of all those assurances—the Labor Party continue this massive scare campaign in the hope that it will in some way get Mr Shorten looking better against the constant attacks from his colleagues on the ABC program The Killing Season. We cannot wait for this evening and another gripping episode of how dysfunctional the Labor Party are in opposition, which is how incompetent and dysfunctional they were when in government.

That is why this nation needs two or three terms, at least, of Liberal and National Party governments to get the country back on track. Labor, starting with a $60 billion credit—with $60 billion in the kitty for a rainy day—not only spent that $60 billion but ran up debts that would, if not addressed, approach $700 billion. That is a turnaround of some $760 billion. The previous speaker made a comment about the health system that 'Tony Abbott decides he can afford to give to you'. I remind Labor people, because they did not understand this when they were in government, that governments do not have any money at all. Governments do not own a single cent. All they do is use taxpayers' money. So it is not 'the government's money'; it the taxpayers of Australia's money, and they demand—and the Liberal and National parties will bring—proper and careful management of their taxation moneys.

I know these figures have been given before, but perhaps with enough repetition they might just sink through the minds of Labor Party speakers in this debate. Total budgeted health spending has this year increased from $67 billion to $69.7 billion. That is an increase of 3.4 per cent, more than the inflation rate, since last year. Public hospitals in 2005-06 were being supported to the extent of $8 billion. This year, public hospitals are getting $16 billion. In spite of what the previous speaker said, I am sorry, you cannot argue against the figures—and the figures are all there. PBS spending has gone up from $6 billion in 2005-06 to $10 billion in 2015-16, an increase of some 59 per cent. And the figures just continue. This government is concerned about health but wants to have a sustainable and financially viable health system—because, again, it is not the government's money; it is the taxpayers' money that has to be spent properly.

If you want to understand just how mischievously misinformed the Labor Party speakers are, we heard this comment that, back in the good old days before the Commonwealth took a greater funding share of public health expenditure, people had to sell their houses to go to hospital. Of course, the speakers should remember that in most states, and certainly in my state of Queensland, there was a free state hospital system—run by the Golden Casket, would you believe? It was always there, and so that sort of scaremongering misinformation that you get from Labor speakers clearly and typically exemplifies why Labor should never be trusted with money and should never be trusted with our health system. Our health system will continue to grow and continue to be even better, but it will be done in a financially responsible way. At the same time, we will look after taxpayers' money properly so that they are not paying more than $3 million each and every day in interest on loans borrowed during the Labor period. Good health means good coalition government. (Time expired)