p>Tony Abbott has today continued his lies about health cuts at today’s meeting with state and territory leaders, insisting he never promised to quarantine health from Budget cuts.
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Tony Abbott has today continued his lies about health cuts at today’s meeting with state and territory leaders, insisting he never promised to quarantine health from Budget cuts.
“Going into the last election we said that we would stand by the Rudd-Gillard Government’s funding allocation for schools and hospitals over the then forward estimates period but beyond the then forward estimates period, we won’t going to be bound by it.”
Tony Abbott, COAG Press Conference, 17/4/2015
Mr Abbott may no such qualification in the election campaign.
“We are not in the business of cutting health. No cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to pensions, no changes to the GST. Let me say it again – no cuts to health. No cuts to health.”
Tony Abbott, Melbourne Press Conference 30/08/2013
No ifs, no buts, no qualifications about “forward estimates” the promise could not have been clearer. “No cuts to health” full stop.
Indeed, Mr Abbott’s 2013 election platform specifically committed to Labor’s long term funding arrangement for public hospitals.
“A Coalition Government will support the transition to the Commonwealth providing 50 per cent growth funding of the efficient price of hospital services.”
“The Coalition’s Policy to Support Australia’s Health System” August 2013
Instead, his Government smashed public hospitals by ripping $57 billion off the states and territories over the next decade.
Even the claim that his government has stood by the former Labor Government forward estimates is untrue.
In last year’s Budget the Abbott Government cut $1.8 billion out of hospitals over the next four years, then in December’s MYEFO it slashed another $941 million.
Mr Abbott finally acknowledged his cuts are unsustainable for the states and territories and will not meet their growing health costs.
However, as his typical with his government’s chaotic health policy, Mr Abbott has offered nothing more than, you guessed it, another review.
Australians deserve more than a government which only ever sees health as a target for budget cuts, and cannot even tell the truth about the lies it has told to make those cuts.