Piers Akerman Thursday, August 22, 2013 (7:41pm) THE real-time display of the smirking Prime Minister and earnest Opposition Leader in the second debate provided some light relief from the routine set-pieces of the campaign but did little to advance the drawn-out electoral process. Kevin Rudd told lies, as he does, about non-existent cuts he claimed Tony Abbott had made to the health budget. Abbott delivered the best line of the campaign so far when he asked the audience: “Does this guy ever shut up?” As Rudd’s former colleagues will testify, no. Rudd keeps repeating lies in the vain hope they will gain some traction among the uninformed and ignorant. Abbott was chided by some commentators who claimed he had been confrontational and even intimidating. Clearly none of them remembered Paul Hogan’s show-stopping Crocodile Dundee line: “That’s not a knife!”. Nor was Abbott’s throwaway, which attracted applause and laughter from the audience, threatening. Not one male Labor figure could argue with a straight face the put-down was in any way daunting. Only party loyalist Penny Wong could be persuaded to step up to mutter darkly about Abbott’s behaviour. If Abbott, an Oxford boxing double blue, had wanted to intimidate Rudd as he pranced about, he could have delivered a Mick Dundee shrug of the shoulders and hinted at what real aggro looked like. The debate organisers let the viewers down. The first few questions were from students, who without being too demeaning, demonstrated their lack of real world experience and knowledge by focusing on the sort of topics usually preoccupying entrants to the Miss World contest. Perhaps moderator David Speers should have pulled Rudd up when he persisted in his mendacious claims about Coalition cuts to health. Perhaps Abbott might have reminded Rudd of the Dr Death nickname his fellow Queenslanders gave him after he slashed-and-burnt his way through their health system. As Rudd continues to peddle his portfolio of lies it is important to put the Howard government’s record before the public, as the much-ballyhooed fact checkers of the ABC and Fairfax seem reluctant to tackle the truth. Abbott was Minister for Health and Ageing from October 2003 to December 2007. The Treasury records clearly show that, in that period, the health budget increased each year, as follows: 2002-03 - $7.11 billion, 2003-04 - $7.49 billion, 2004-05 - $7.95 billion, 2005-06 - $8.32 billion, 2006-07 - $8.82 billion, 2007-08 - $9.76 billion. Rudd has been attempting to smear Abbott’s record on health for years. Three years ago, the then-speaker Harry Jenkins permitted Abbott to make a personal statement to the House following one of Labor’s hysterical attacks. As Abbott pointedly remarked, he was not Health Minister when the 2003 budget was delivered. Then he read from the 2003-04 budget paper showing the five-year public hospital funding it contained represented a $10 billion increase over the previous five-year agreement. As he said: “This demonstrates that the claims repeatedly made opposite are simply not true. They are lies.” Labor’s lie is loosely based on the rearrangement of funding in the Commonwealth and states agreement that was negotiated when Abbott’s predecessor, senator Kay Patterson, was health minister. It’s not that difficult to understand - but probably way too complex for those who still think Labor can break with tradition, deliver surpluses, a lower cost of living, a cooler planet and shrinking seas. Treasury records show there never was a reduction in funding because any notional reduction was based on an agreement that, if private health insurance subscribers exceeded a particular threshold, the federal government would be able to claw back some funding. As it happened, the Howard government’s private health rebates and Lifetime Health Cover were so successful that private health insurance participation soared beyond all expectation and gave health ministers Patterson and Michael Wooldridge, before her, the right, under the agreement with the states, to reduce funding by about $3 billion - an option Senator Patterson chose not to exercise. The 2003-08 Australian Health Care Agreement with the states provided a 17 per cent real increase in funding. As I wrote at the time, for Rudd and his ever-diminishing claque of supporters to claim $1 billion was ripped out of health by Abbott (who was not minister at the time) on the basis of a notional reduction (that was never made) agreed to by the states, should the Howard government be successful (which it was) is a nonsense. Treasury figures show the Howard government more than doubled annual spending on health and aged care, from $19.5 billion in 1995-96 to $51.8 billion in 2007-08. If Rudd wants to stamp his little feet and pout about a real scandal he might like to explain why it was necessary for the Australian taxpayers to pick up the $800,000-plus cost of the pre-election flight he took to Afghanistan for a photo-opportunity with his wife Therese Rein. The 20-man group flew in one of the RAAF’s brand new KC-30A multi-role tankers, a modified A-330 Airbus wide-body twin-engine passenger jet, which can seat 300. The party spent four hours at Tarin Kowt following the 20-hour flight then turned for home having delivered no more than an election stunt.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:47:44 +0000
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