Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I reject the premise behind that question. I reject the assertion in Ms Savva's article. And, of course, having a question from a member of the opposition about throwing money at a problem is really quite an astounding proposition. It's quite an astounding proposition that those opposite would decide to hone in on an anonymous quote and suggest that somehow throwing money at a problem is a bad thing. Those opposite know no other solution to most problems than to throw money at them. Whilst pretending to take a bipartisan approach to issues in the pandemic, they've also been none too shy in terms of saying that the government should not bring JobKeeper to an end, but then criticising the spending on JobKeeper. They've come out with policies such as last week's thought bubble around the $300 payments to all Australians, including the millions who have already been vaccinated.

Of course, we know they want to talk about cabinet process. That one didn't even go through the shadow cabinet process. It was a surprise to Mr Butler. The shadow health minister, of all people, didn't even know about it—(Time expired)