Page 1844 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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thank Minister Rattenbury for bringing this motion forward. It was interesting to listen to Mr Hanson. He has not said whether he is supporting this motion or not, but it is very clear—
Mr Hanson: Yes, I did, at the outset.
MS BURCH: I am sorry, Mr Hanson; I missed that. You have a clear choice to say very publicly, by either supporting or not supporting this motion, that you support the co-payment for Medicare or you do not support the co-payment for Medicare. You can say you are concerned about it, but it is a very simple question: you support it or you do not, and that will be evidenced by the time we take a vote on this.
It was interesting that in half of your speech you talked about Andrew Leigh, who clearly came out and declared a change of position. But no-one is talking about the Treasurer, Mr Hockey, and his change of position. As a Young Liberal he was advocating and promoting the cause of free education, and here he is—
Mr Hanson: Madam Deputy Speaker, I got pinged for relevance. Could you observe whether Mr Hockey and his position on education when he was at university is relevant to a debate on the Medicare co-payment.
Members interjecting—
Mr Hanson: If you had let me go, I would let her go.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, are you going to—
Mr Hanson: I have moved it as a point of order on relevance.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I know, but I am wondering if you are going to allow me the courtesy of being able to speak.
Mr Hanson: My apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was responding to an interjection, and I should not have.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please do not. Your point of order is upheld. Ms Burch, will you remain relevant, please.
MS BURCH: Thank you. The other comment that Mr Hanson made—and he always uses such colourful language—was that we are here squealing about the co-payment. Some other groups that are squealing about the co-payment, Mr Hanson, are the Australian Medical Association and the health consumer forum. I pulled from a website—I am not quite sure now which website it was—over the last couple of days that there has been criticism of the proposal by the Australian Medical Association, and Australia’s largest consumer health group, the Consumer Health Forum, said it would not support measures that increased co-payments and charges given the considerable evidence surrounding the impact of the growing out-of-pocket expenses relating to health.
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