Mr BAKER (2:50 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister explain to the House the lasting health benefits of the Commonwealth’s proposal to create a Commonwealth-funded community controlled hospital at the Mersey in Latrobe in Tasmania? Are there any alternative policies, and what is the government’s response?

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Health and Ageing) —I am delighted to follow the Minister for Ageing and inform the House of more good news from the Howard government. I want to thank the member for Braddon for his question, and I want to again congratulate him on his ceaseless advocacy for the people of north-west Tasmania. Let me make it very clear that the only government with a proper plan for health services in north-west Tasmania is the federal government. The Tasmanian government has a big, fat pile of paper but it is not a plan, because there are no dollars associated with it. Without dollars involved, it is nothing but a wish list.

The Commonwealth’s plan has three essential elements. The Commonwealth will fund the hospital to the tune of $45 million a year, the community will control the hospital, and the hospital will deliver the same range of services that were safely and effectively delivered at the Mersey hospital for many years before the Tasmanian Labor government began the downgrade. This is a good model for public hospitals. It ends the blame game, because just one level of government pays the bills, and it cuts the bureaucracy, because management decisions are made locally and not at head office. The federal government is offering to permanently relieve the state government of responsibility for Mersey hospital. This gives the state government up to $45 million a year extra to spend on health services at Burnie and Launceston hospitals. Woe betide any state government that wilfully refuses a $45 million a year free gift to north-west Tasmania out of sheer bloody-mindedness and hurt pride.

We have bizarre behaviour from the state government. What about the Leader of the Opposition? Yesterday the Treasurer said that the Leader of the Opposition was desperately trying to be a Liberal. With respect, no Liberal would be such a fake. Yesterday at a press conference he denounced the Mersey decision as absolutely rotten and then he said he would not oppose it. This is how the journalist Matt Price described the Leader of the Opposition’s me too’ism. He said:

This is the kind of verbal sludge that we constantly get from the Leader of the Opposition. Let me say this: if he is not willing to lead, he is not ready to govern, and the last thing the Australian people want is a phoney in the Lodge.