As it happened: the Rudd v Abbott health debate

Yut says:

01:29pm | 23/03/10

Well I’m not sure about that, but after watching the debate it seems Channel Nine enjoyed the $250 million handout from the ALP to the networks so much that they picked only Labor voters in the debate audience, and thus, the ‘Worm’ merely represented Labor voter opinion.

Peter says:

12:44pm | 24/03/10

Not disputing that, but wasn’t the audience the Press Club? Not sure if anyone chooses that. Unfortunately I had work on and couldn’t watch it all but saw them discuss bringing Dentistry into Medicare. I did prefer Abbotts approach about covering treatement and not check ups. But that is all i saw…

Gotta be says:

02:17pm | 24/03/10

There was an audience in the Press Club - journos asking questions, plus polliticians.

There were two other off-camera audiences, 7 and 9, separately selected and recording reactions by different means. See
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2010/03/24/when-the-worms-turn-–-the-inside-info-on-audience-response/

Peter says:

03:10pm | 24/03/10

Thanks Gotta be…

Alex says:

03:59pm | 24/03/10

Channel nine didn’t pick anyone for their audience. According to Nine, they where independently selected by a market research company as being people who where undecided who they would vote for. Also know as swing voters.

Also, Abbott’s proposal to fund treatment and not checkups for dental shows how little he actually understands about health care. I might have it wrong, but i am pretty sure that dental falls under the health ministers portfolio. It is widely known amongst health professionals that regular check ups, whether it be for your teeth, your heart, your prostate, anywhere leads to lower long term costs as conditions are picked up before they can turn into a serious and costly problem. If we funded or partly funded dental or other health care checkups, a lot of chronic and painful conditions could be addressed with minimised cost to the payer. It would also encourage people to get along and have these checks rather than trying to juggle bills and other costs the average person or family face every day.

Mark says:

11:46am | 23/03/10

Fan here. Chirp chirp.

Ben says:

12:14pm | 23/03/10

Right here mate, are we supposed to be cheering him on like it’s a game or something?

Haydos says:

01:06pm | 23/03/10

Here’s one knucklehead, are you Ruddnuts still in denial about his inability to deliver on his promises.
Insulation rorts, fires and deaths, school building fraud,
turning back the boats etc.
In fact I suspect the worm may have been contolled by some of those new boat people on their special deal. Did you see the panel didn’t look too typical Australian did they, but I suppose if we leave Dudd in Govt too much longer they will be the typical Aussie.
Of course he will stuff this one up aswell you fools.

Brian Connor says:

01:25pm | 23/03/10

Me too. Rudd is a liar - Abbott smoked him out today.

steve Beiger says:

10:37pm | 23/03/10

The buzz word for the coalition is now “Commitment” every time when asked why they did not do what they promised when elected they all say in unison “Hear hear-We gave a commitment” be happy. Tony and the no follow through party.

steve Beiger says:

10:45pm | 23/03/10

Abbott is a blockhead and your comments are no better. How can improvemrnts be made in this country when everything is blocked in the senate. Remember John Howard whimpering all over the place ” I have a mandate, I have a mandate, I was elected, well Kevin Rudd has been elected and can only deliver when the coalition think of the people and not play political games. See what happens next time in the senate elections or will your lot blame Rudd again?

Rowdy says:

09:04am | 24/03/10

steve….there are 3 green and 2 independent senators in the senate. If Rudd was to engage them, the Coalition are taken out of the equation. Why not blame them? For 27 of the last 30 years, the government of the day has had to deal with a hostile senate….Rudd is no different. Maybe if he had better negotiating skills…or if he could actually deliver a policy that he proposes without stuffing things up, then maybe he would find it easier.

As it stands, Rudd is hopelesssly out of his depth in terms of delivery…..who is the blockhead???

Weary says:

01:15pm | 23/03/10

Fine, you speak for people with half a brain.  Those of us with a full brain disagree with you and your half-braind ilk, probably because we have so much more intelligence to work with.  Oh, and PS - they’re both useless.  Nice that you prefer being lied to by one man over another.

Peter WH says:

01:30pm | 23/03/10

Hey steve,speak for yourself….The Liberals killed off free dental and as amatter of fact if i remember correctly Tony abbotyt was the Health Minister making all these promises and how many did he keep and OH yes us with 1/2 a brain would know that,WELL I have a FULL brain and Tony Abbott is degrading all of Australian.

Ben says:

02:00pm | 23/03/10

Peter WH - Free dental?  That sure would be nice, but in the real world the money to fund it has to come from somewhere.  And perhaps you can tell us about your problems with his record for keeping promises as minister for Health and Ageing and show us you know what you’re talking about, instead of empty generalised rubbish.  You know, some examples of what you’re meant to be so upset with to show you’re not just blinded by party politics.

Joe says:

02:15pm | 23/03/10

Im not a select minded Labor voter, but it seems to me the health care system we have now is the same as it was under Howard and has not changed yet.  So basically, the Rudd government have managed the health care system just as well as the Liberals did, up until now.

While its fairly hypocritical of you to criticise Labor for being socialist for supporting publicly funded health care, unless of course the Liberals do not support publicly funded health care and are planning to scrap medicare altogether, or oppose publicly funded education or Australia having a social security system.  After all, they are all part of the social democracy/democratic socialism ideology, which is actually very different from socialism.  However, seems to me, if you think Labor is socialist for supporting these policies, you must agree the Liberals are socialists as well.

Peter from the bush says:

04:30pm | 23/03/10

It appears that all you city folk forget who crusified the health system during the Howard years.,...your friend Tony Abbott

Pete W T Meat says:

06:53pm | 23/03/10

I Sure Hope You dont vote, you are miss informed

Ben says:

01:34pm | 23/03/10

Even Laurie Oakes came closer than ever to conceding it’s an empty gimmick and the pollies may as well be speaking Swahili.  I hope the everyone from the audience watches a full replay to see just how ridiculous and hypocritical they look!

Albie says:

01:56pm | 23/03/10

Totally agree.
If they are going to rig the outcome you would think that they would try and do a better job then they have done.
It was so obvious.

Pete W T Meat says:

07:04pm | 23/03/10

You are onto a winner here Jenni, it appears when they get a worm organised they get all the controlers from a Labour Electorate.

Jenni says:

01:13pm | 23/03/10

And Kevin Rudd Is any better??????

Ron says:

01:24pm | 23/03/10

At least Tony Abbott speaks a language thatw e can all understand….

Seano says:

02:15pm | 23/03/10

Yes, well Ron most of us do understand bullshit when we hear it…

Ben says:

01:29pm | 23/03/10

“The Mad Abbott caught lying about ripping a billion dollars out of public health and hospitals.”... no Douglas, Rudd was (continually) lying about that, and the article you linked is about a graph that includes some Rudd govt spending at the end, nothing to do with that garbage.  I suppose Abbott could have made it clearer by putting a big red mark on the graph where there was a change of government for the people who were living under a rock, but only for the benefit of the children who will otherwise use it as a distraction from Rudd’s lies.

By the way, you couldn’t sound more blinded by party politics if you tried, how about toning it down a bit if you want a shred of credibility?

bill says:

01:34pm | 23/03/10

YOU are stupid,did’nt it mean anything to you that we the only country
in the World not to go in recession, that cost money to stop unemployment
going through the roof, thing about it

Joe says:

02:16pm | 23/03/10

I thought the Liberals also supported publicly funded health care and medicare, or are they planning to scrap it altogether?  Don’t the Liberals also support publicly funded education and Australia having a social security system?  I guess the Liberal Party must be socialists as well.

Matt says:

07:20pm | 23/03/10

Liar, Liar pants on fire Rudd - if I keep telling the same lie 1,000s of times it must be true. (Don’t picture Rudd in speedos, you may never recover).

AM says:

01:15pm | 23/03/10

That’s Chairman Rudd!

Learn to respect your leader, fool!

Steve Putnam says:

09:02am | 28/03/10

Fact is both those elections were there for the taking yet the Liberals won neither. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Come election day I’ll be taking money off anyone stupid enough to bet on Abbot!

Speller says:

01:09pm | 23/03/10

“too”.  Learn to spell mate…..

Full stop at the end too.

Scott says:

01:11pm | 23/03/10

A different class of Lier.

Has he done anything as PM???

Tom says:

01:27pm | 23/03/10

It’s more like India v Australia on a raging turner in Mumbai - not a fair fight to start with. Krudd will only fight when he’s got the press, studio worm audience and a recently announced policy to back him up. Let’s see a fair debate.

Seano says:

02:07pm | 23/03/10

“Has he done anything as PM??? “

Is that irony? Having accused Rudd of lying you trot out the standard Liberal party lie about Rudd not having done anything. I guess if you say it often enough…

persephone says:

01:56pm | 23/03/10

If we’re waiting for Abbott to get his fully policy details together, Rudd’ll be in power until 2026.

Seano says:

02:13pm | 23/03/10

Hmm…a puerile personal attack on Rudd followed by a promise that Tony will get him next time, you know when he finally gets a policy. Talk about simplistic garbage.

Dingo says:

07:22pm | 23/03/10

Totally agree Chalks, Rudd’s “let’s work together” line means he hasn’t got a clue what to do so could the opposition write some policy for him.

“Health” is a ministerial portfolio, and a core Government responsibility, not a conscience vote bipartisan issue. If Rudd and Roxon are not capable of fixing the Health system they should resign.

Asking the opposition to take a bipartisan approach to save the Rudd Government from their own incompetence is pathetic.

Gandalf says:

01:59pm | 23/03/10

That’s right Jane, Rudd’s policy of not one new bed until 2014 has won my vote, and how could we possibly trust anyone but the ALP to fix a problem created by the ALP in the first place

Henry says:

01:27pm | 23/03/10

I agree…working families matter.. the rest of us don’t exist!

internationale says:

01:41pm | 23/03/10

If the Libs get in “working families” will mean the kids go down the mines again.

JJ says:

01:32pm | 23/03/10

You must have been watching the coverage at Sky News, or work for the Australian. Seriously, I don’t think that even the most fanatical supporters of Abbott believe he did that well. He made a few attacks with a bit of bite, but looked out of his depth for much of the debate. He does much better in Parliament. If I was him, I would stick to Parliament, where he kills Rudd.

Steve Putnam says:

09:09am | 28/03/10

What colour is the sky in your world and how many moons does it have?

Halberstram says:

01:36pm | 23/03/10

You need to embrace the Worm !

The Worm does not lie !!

persephone says:

02:29pm | 23/03/10

I beg your pardon? I posted above, well before you wrote this.

Lots of unbiased reports here, most of them giving the debate to Rudd.

persephone says:

02:37pm | 23/03/10

No, John, it has nothing to do with handouts. It’s how voters always react to Rudd.

They like him. They don’t like Abbott.

But if you want to believe it’s rigged, go right ahead.

There’s a river in Egypt.

casey says:

03:49pm | 23/03/10

So, uh, Fo6, you got any real argument in there? Kevin’s mentioned, himself, that those who earn what he earns will not be financially benefitting from this sort of reform. It’s all for the likes of you and I, sweetheart.