Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Abetz. I refer to the Prime Minister's pre-election promise that there would be no cuts to health. How can the minister claim that this government has not broken its promise, given the most recent budget has cut more than $50 billion from hospitals over the next decade?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The telltale comment was in the last bit of Senator Bilyk's question.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the next decade.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Exactly right, Senator Cormann—over the next decade. Everyone accepts that, whilst Labor made these wild and rash promises, there was never any funding base to those claims. So what the Labor Party does—in their traditional style—if they think they are going to lose office is that they make extravagant promises, they have a scorched-earth policy and they promise all this money without any revenue base. Then when we say that the trajectory is completely and utterly unsustainable, they accuse us of harsh cuts. That is when they did not have a funding base.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You said, 'No cuts!'

Government senators interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order on my right. Order on my left.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is unfair is when a government on its way out makes these hoax promises in a desperate bid to get re-elected, knowing full well that their promises at the time and into the future would all be funded by ongoing and extended borrowings. Indeed, Senator Bilyk and her government had us on a trajectory to $667,000 million worth of debt, which would have translated into an interest bill of literally thousands of millions of dollars per month just to pay the interest on the loans. Just imagine—$1,000 million, just one month's interest payment, could have built a brand-new teaching hospital in Hobart, our home state. Your profligacy has denied us that opportunity. (Time expired)

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer to the Prime Minister's pre-election promise that there will be no new taxes. I also refer to the introduction of a $7 GP tax, which has been described by senior Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald as 'dangerous'. If the coalition's own backbench has recognised the danger of this new tax, why will the government not do the same and abandon this measure?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The greatest Labor Prime Minister in Australian history, Bob Hawke, championed a co-contribution for Medicare. Let us never forget that. The Labor Party's shadow assistant treasurer, Dr Andrew Leigh, in one of his more lucid and honest moments when he was writing his book, acknowledged the importance of having a co-contribution for visits to GPs. We know that the co-contribution is something that the responsible people in the Labor Party know needs to occur, but they are too scared to tell the Australian people the truth. That is why former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, to his credit, said we need this. That is why in opposition Dr Andrew Leigh, the shadow assistant treasurer for the Labor Party, has said the same thing. (Time expired)

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a second supplementary question. Given that this government has slashed more than $50 billion from hospitals and proposed a $7 GP tax and a $5 prescription fee, does the minister agree that it is Australians who are paying for the government's broken promises?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian people are paying for the profligacy of the six years when Labor had control of the budget. In relation to Senator Bilyk's very wild assertions, I simply invite her to bring in the budget papers and table the page where those assertions are supported. I suggest to her she will be unable to do so. As a result, I invite Senator Bilyk to be responsible, tell the truth to the Australian people and, having created the huge financial mess that we now find ourselves in, be decent enough to assist us in cleaning up that mess. They have delayed the repeal of the carbon tax by nine months and we know that if they were re-elected they would reintroduce the carbon tax and put that impost back on Australian families. We will not go down that track. (Time expired)