Labor’s attempted bravura last week in thinking they could show up he Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, by calling on an instant 10 minute debate during Question Time left them with egg all over their collective face. The pathetic tactic to give Mr Abbott an extra 5 minutes only heightened their miscalculation.
Mr Rudd’s 10 minutes, for which he was no doubt forewarned, did not cut the mustard. All he could say was Tony Abbott, while Health Minister, had “ripped one billion dollars out of hospitals”. A statement continually refuted by Mr Abbott himself.
Mr Rudd presumably repeats the lie, in the belief that if you repeat a lie often enough and it’s not refuted, it will gain currency.
The problem for Labor is it is refuted, not only by Mr Abbott but by the budget papers themselves.
A cut occurs when you get less than you were getting before; an increase occurs when you receive more than you were previously getting.
Hospitals actually received an increase not a decrease. Between 2003/2004 and 2007/2008 there was an increase of 17%. That is an increase of $2.23 billion during Tony Abbott’s watch as Health Minister with the budgeted payment for 2007/2008 being $9.76 billion up from $7.49 billion.
But facts will no doubt not deter a repetition of the lie by Labor. That’s the old socialist way. The real question is will it continue to be reported as other than a lie.
Thanks to Piers Akerman we see the facts are being reported and credit to Michael Stutchbury for also pointing out the increase to hospitals under Tony Abbott’s watch.
But there was Labor’s chief spin doctor, Bruce Hawker, on ABC Monday morning repeating the lie. No prizes for guessing who writes the scripts for Labor Federal Ministers.
Free Enterprise demands truth not spin, and the election results on the weekend of a swing to the Liberal Party of over 7% in both South Australia and Tasmania shows that people are beginning to be over the spin.
What has been established is that character has become an election issue. In South Australia’s case the character question relating to Mr Rann was very much to the fore. It was the constant spin put on the Michelle Chantelois allegations that became the issue rather than the allegations themselves. It was how Mr Rann dealt with the issue that mattered.
Similarly the constant lie about health funding by Mr Rudd as a way of diverting argument is a character issue, as is Mr Rudd’s culpability for the mismanagement of the Pink Batt programme for which Mr Garrett has taken the fall and the mismanagement of the Building Education Revolution for which Miss Gillard has not taken the fall.
This causes one to reflect on the difference between Peter Garrett and Julia Gillard.
Well, you might ask, what is the difference between Peter Garrett and Julia Gillard?
Answer: hair.
Their performance in administration of their respective programmes of Pink Batts and the Building Education Revolution is pretty much the same – incompetence.
Each shared the aim of just getting the money out the door irrespective of whether procedures were worked out and in place to protect safety and prevent fraud.
In each case the mounting evidence of fraud is incontrovertible and in each case they both continued to defend the indefensible.
Why then the different treatment of each Minister by the Prime Minister? Simple, Mr Rudd owes his position of Prime Minister to his Julia Gillard’s left wing faction.
So the difference between Gillard and Garrett certainly is hair – it’s red like her numbers.
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