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

I also wish to speak on this motion about the select committee report on supposed hospital funding cuts. I note in commencing that Senator Polley said she never personally attacked Mr Nikolic when he was in this parliament. It seems to me that she has waited until he was not in the parliament and could not speak for himself in this place to launch a pretty vicious personal attack on a great Australian who, both in parliament and his life previously in our defence forces, has made a magnificent contribution to Australia—a much more significant contribution, I might say with respect, than Senator Polley ever has or will.

Senator Polley's discussion on this health report draws to my attention the whole question of hospital funding. I commence my remarks by congratulating all of those who work in our hospitals, both public and private—the nursing staff, the support staff, the medical staff. They do a wonderful job for all Australians and it means, of course, that Australia has one of the best, if not the best, health systems anywhere on this planet. So congratulations go to all of those involved.

My congratulations also go to Sussan Ley, the Minister for Health, who has done a wonderful job in the time that she has been the health minister, and has continued funding not only to hospitals but all aspects of the health budget. I particularly note the work that Ms Ley has done in bringing on to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme some very expensive drugs that have now been made available to ordinary members of society. I mention in passing just one of them: the drug related to fixing hepatitis C. So congratulations to the coalition government and the minister on the work she has been doing there, and also on the work she has been doing generally with hospitals.

Senator Polley's reference to Medicare alerts me yet again, with much sadness, to what is the most disgraceful episode that I have ever seen in my long life in any campaign. This was perpetrated by the unions, who control the Labor Party, with the Labor Party and with that outrageously fraudulent group called GetUp!, which is just a front for the Greens political party. I do not know what happened elsewhere, although I suspect this disgracefully dishonest campaign was conducted by the unions and the Labor Party and the Greens right throughout Australia, but I know it certainly happened in north Queensland.

In the two pre-poll booths in Townsville there were long queues waiting to get a pre-poll, and southern unionists—not locals, I might say, but people imported by the Labor Party and the unions, from the south somewhere—were there bullying people in the queue with dishonest comments like, 'the Liberals will get rid of Medicare' and 'the Liberals are going to sell Medicare'. I mean, who would want to buy Medicare, for a start? It was a disgracefully dishonest campaign.

Further to that, the unions—and I suspect, the Labor Party—had printed cards that looked exactly the same as the Medicare card all of us have when we go to a doctor or a hospital. But these were fraudulent cards with a message on them that said the coalition government was going to sell Medicare, to get rid of Medicare. It was completely dishonest and fraudulent. This was followed up by those robocalls—unauthorised, I must say, but I do not think anyone would challenge me in saying they were paid for by the unions or the Labor Party—with voices coming across in the blackout period in the last couple of days before the election, saying, 'this is a message from your local Medicare office; the coalition government is going to get rid of Medicare', or words to that effect. This was a disgracefully lying campaign that is the lowest point that I ever seen in the long years that I have been involved in campaigns in Australia.

This campaign by the Labor Party and the unions actually scared a lot of people. Those unionists who were bullying people along the queue waiting for a vote at the pre-poll picked their mark. They would go to older people—