Senator IAN MACDONALD (3:20 PM) —What absolute hypocrisy on the part of the Australian Labor Party yet again. When the greatest rorter and conflicter of interests in recent times in this parliament, the then Leader of the Labor Party, was conflicting in his interests over the piggery, over tax and over the Commonwealth Bank for a long period of time, there was not a whimper from the Australian Labor Party. So it is obvious why the Labor Party has lost this issue.

I wish to oppose the motion before the chair—that is, that we take note of the answers from Senator Parer—and wish to move as an amendment that we take notice of the answers given by Senator Kemp and Senator Herron, because those answers and those questions were about the real issues confronting the Australian public, not the continual muckraking and slime dredging by the Labor Party. The real issues are about jobs and health. The questions that Senator Herron and Senator Kemp answered were about that.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Senator Macdonald, are you seriously moving those amendments?

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Yes, if I can.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —No, they are not in order, because they do not relate to the subject matter that is before the chair.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —The subject matter before the chair is that we take notice of the answer from Senator Parer. My amendment is that we take notice of the answer by Senator Herron.

Senator Robert Ray —Note or notice?

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Note—take note of.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —It is moving it to a different motion. Therefore, it is not in order.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —The motion before the chair is that we take note of the answers given by Senator Parer—just that we take note of his answers. My amendment is that we take note of the answers given not by Senator Parer but by Senator Herron. And it is simply a motion to take note of answers. I am suggesting that the motion should be amended to delete reference to the answer by Senator Parer and include Senator Herron's name in its stead .

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —And I am saying—

Senator Alston —Madam Deputy President, could I suggest a way of approaching it. One of the concerns is that the whole half-hour could be taken up before we actually get to another opportunity to take note of an answer by Senator Herron. So if Senator Macdonald is allowed to simply add to it then that enables him to deal with this at the same time. If the others want to carry on about Senator Parer's answers, then they can do that as well.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —It is out of order because it is not relating to the subject matter of Senator Parer's answer.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —I realise that the Labor Party are just trying to stop me talking about the real issue confronting Australia, which is health. We want to talk about health.

Senator Carr —But you don't want to defend Parer.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —We do not have to defend Senator Parer. Senator Parer has had not an iota, not a skerrick, of evidence brought against him that he was in conflict. But we want to talk about the real issues. So I will speak to this motion by opposing it, saying we should not take note of the answer by Senator Parer, because there are other matters more important.

This issue of taking note of Senator Parer's answer is quite ridiculous. Not even the Democrats raised this issue today, which shows how absolutely irrelevant it is. But the real issue, as all Australians know, is the health issue and what happened last week that Senator Herron and Senator Kemp have spoken about. It is with some regret that the state premiers left the meeting on health because, as all Australians should know, the Commonwealth was giving a 15 per cent increase—in real terms over a five year period—in health funding.

Furthermore, as the minister, Dr Wooldridge, has been saying, this government has negotiated an agreement that provides reimbursement of some $83 million a year to the states for any one per cent of further reduction in the number of people covered by private health insurance. Now these are the real issues which show what this government is doing to make sure that the health of all Australians is assured. The Labor Party do not want to talk about this health issue because their priority is to abolish—and take away from Australian families—the $450 a year subsidy that the Howard government introduced in the last year.

This is the only policy that the Labor Party have enunciated. You ask the Labor Party what their policies are on anything else, and you get former senator Gareth Evans talking about negative gearing. That was countermanded within six hours by his leader. So there is a policy vacuum over there in the Labor Party. Tell us what your policy is on health. As Senator Kemp has mentioned, it seems that your policy is to spend an extra $6.2 billion, with no indication of where that money is coming from. It is pretty obvious. And Senator Carr, we know that it is part of your socialist left philosophy to increase taxes all the time to pay for this additional $6 billion that your spokesman wants to spend. That is the difference—we have policies, you have none. (Time expired)