E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
MONDAY, 15 APRIL 2019
SUBJECT/S: Labor’s plan to blitz elective surgery waiting lists; hospitals funding; health costings; Malcolm Turnbull; Clive Palmer; Electric Vehicles; Peter Dutton being toxic; Election debates; cancer victim.
SIMON CURTIS, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR LA TROBE: G’day everyone. Thank you for joining us here at Casey Hospital here in Berwick in the seat of La Trobe. I’m Simon Curtis, I’m Labor’s candidate for the upcoming seat, for the upcoming election. I’m really thrilled to be here today with Bill Shorten our leader, with Catherine King, Labor’s shadow health spokesperson. I’m here together with Anthony Byrne as well, our neighbouring MP for Holt. We’ve got some really exciting announcements today on health, here at the hospital, and what that will really do for our community. Thanks, Bill.
BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Good morning everybody. It’s great to be here at Casey Hospital in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. You were just hearing from Simon Curtis, Labor’s candidate for La Trobe. I’m really pleased to announce that a Labor Government, if elected on May 18, will contribute an additional $250 million to help reduce waiting lists for elective surgery in this country. I just want to unpack that term waiting lists for a moment. It sort of sounds benign doesn’t it, the word waiting lists, the words waiting lists, it’s like waiting for a spot in a restaurant. But waiting lists in the health context are anything but benign. I just got to catch up with a gentleman called Leigh, his father’s been waiting and he’s now had a double knee replacement and a double hip replacement. That waiting time is painful. When we talk about waiting lists increasing 10 per cent under the Liberal National Government in Canberra, what that means, is it means a lot of our fellow Australians, hundreds of thousands of them, are waiting longer to have painful, painful surgery resolved.
If you want to be Prime Minister of Australia, the pain which ordinary Aussies are going through should be a priority. That's why Labor is going to find additional money in our budget because we prioritise reducing the waiting times of our fellow Australians. That's what this announcement is about, $250 million, which is about helping Australians get more timely treatment. The thing with a lot of the surgeries is once you have the surgery, it works. The cataracts removed, the hip replacements, the arthroscopies, the knee surgery. So once you get the surgery it actually puts people back in control. But the longer you keep people waiting to get this surgery, well that means that you're collaborating and keeping people in pain longer than they otherwise should.
That's why Labor is going to make the economic reforms we are, because why should Australians wait longer while the top end of town enjoy unsustainable tax subsidies? This election is not about a whole set of complicated personality issues, what it’s about is choices. I'm here in the fast growing corridor of the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, talking to staff, talking to patients, talking to the experts. We want to reduce the waiting times which our fellow Australians are experiencing. If we can help alleviate the pain which our fellow Australians are living with right now in their lounge rooms, as they wait for the phone call to find out when their surgery is on then that is actually the right thing to do.
What I’d now like to do is invite Catherine King to talk a little further about this announcement, and I should also say here today, and it’s great, it is a testament to Simon Curtis and Anthony Byrne’s work and Catherine King, that Labor will also put $22.4 million into a mental health in-patient ward. There are some real challenges in the outer suburbs of Australia, not just the outer suburbs, but the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne have not been immune to the tragedies, clusters of young people self-harming and worse. This in-patient ward will make sure people who require the help get it now. You know the problem with our system is that sometimes we can triage people then we push them back out into the world and without that further assistance, then the inevitable happens. I would like to hand over to Catherine now.
CATHERINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks, Bill, and looks it’s terrific to be here with Simon Curtis, our candidate for La Trobe, and my friend and colleague Anthony Byrne to make this very important announcement around elective surgery waiting lists of $250 million out of Labor’s Better Hospitals Fund to ensure we can get elective surgery waiting lists down. One in 10 patients across Australia wait over a year for cataract surgery, hip or knee replacements. And that’s a year in pain, a year often unable to work or unable to go about their daily activities. These waiting lists have grown by 10 per cent since the Liberal Party came to office.
When Labor was last in office, we had a National Partnership Agreement with every state and territory government to improve our public hospitals, to get elective surgery waiting lists down. And what happened? They came to power and in that horror 2014 Budget, they cut funding to public hospitals and they abolished the Public Hospital Improvement Fund, including the money to get elective surgery waiting times down. Now we want to re-invest, again, in our public hospital system to make sure that patients across the community can get the care that they need. I'm proud also, as part of our Better Hospitals Fund, that we're announcing today $22.4 million to build an in-patient mental health unit. I started my career out here in Endeavour Hills, I did my first social work placement at Endeavour Hills Community Health Centre. And I cannot believe coming back here several years later to see the huge population growth here. I know Anthony and Simon, in particular, have been very concerned and have worked very hard to ensure that they get an increase in mental health services here in this community, so we're very proud to make this announcement that that mental health in-patient unit will be built here. I also just want to briefly make some comments about the current Prime Minister and the current Health Minister's attacks on Labor's cancer plan.
Last week, the current Prime Minister had the gall to say that “there are no out-of-pocket costs for cancer patients. It is all free. There's no need to put any more money in. It's alright for cancer patients”. And what we've heard over the course of the last week is patients coming out overwhelmingly across the country and telling their personal stories about the costs of cancer care for them. Labor wants to do something about it. And it's time the Government either put up or shut up. Either, there is no problem to see here, or, cancer patients are paying too much. Labor wants to do something about it, it's about time the current Prime Minister and the current Health Minister actually also agreed with Labor and started funding better care for our cancer patients.
SHORTEN: Thanks, Catherine. Are there any questions on this or other matters?
JOURNALIST: This new Medicare item number that Labor is proposing, why would a doctor accept a fee that's lower than what they can currently receive with the Medicare rebate they get plus the out-of-pocket they can get from a patient?
SHORTEN: Because the doctors want patients. The beauty of having the bulk-billing is that if you don't want to bulk-bill for the higher amount of money which you're getting, so we're giving the specialist or the service more than they're currently getting under Medicare, but if you don't want that patient, they'll have more choices. Because once we lift the rates at which we reimburse for the treatment or the particular procedures, what that means is that if you don't want to do that and you want to charge more, someone down the road is actually going to accept the new, more generous fee and see more patients. So it is competition, friends, and competition is going to, I think, provide a better service.
It's estimated that we will increase bulk-billing rates from somewhere below 50 per cent to somewhere around 80 per cent. But let's go to the heart of the matter – and I think Catherine said it pretty well – last week or when I made my Budget Reply speech, we saw the Government just basically say you know, I don't know, in a fit of jealously – whatever – they just couldn't wrap their heads around how the real system works, they're out-of-touch, so what they said over a week ago, is they said: "well there’s no need to look at Labor's new plans to help with out-of-pocket costs for cancer because there aren't any. It’s all free in the public system." Well this is a case where fantasy met reality. We have been inundated with touching stories, real stories, and I’m sure some of you either know them, have seen them or you might indeed be affected yourselves, or have family affected.
There’s a massive out-of-pocket crisis in terms of costs for cancer. But I notice that the Government having initially said there was no problem have now said that Labor is not funding it enough. You’ve got to love these guys, they’re the cheeky brigade of Australian politics. They’re either saying we’re not doing enough or we’re doing too much. Well let's just put all their noise, their white noise of their failed policies of cuts in hospitals and health care to one side. Let's put to the side the fact that they froze the patient rebate. Labor has got an exciting plan on cancer. Cancer makes you sick but it shouldn't make you poor. And the fact of the matter is there are literally hundreds of thousands of our fellow Australians in the fight of their lives and one of the greatest concerns they have isn't recovery - it's how will their family cope with paying the bills. We want to take that burden away from Australians.
JOURNALIST: In regards to hospitals funding, Mr Shorten, will you commit to restoring federal funding for hospitals to a 50-50 split with the states, even if that ratio, 50 per cent, is more than $2.8 billion?
SHORTEN: We've said we'll work towards 50-50, so the answer is yes. Our best estimates is that this has been a cut of $2.8 billion, and what I do appreciate about your question is, your question recognises the truth of what's happened. This government, this Federal Government, has decreased the proportion it contributes to the states. I'll get Catherine to supplement it, but in Victoria alone, our policy is funded because of our strong economic reform agenda, about reforming taxation, making multinationals pay their fair share. It means that in the next five years we can stop the cut of $635 million to Victorian hospitals which this government is proposing. But I’ve got Catherine here and she is very keen to talk about this.
I’ll come to you in a moment mate, thanks.
KING: I just want to remind people about what’s actually happened here. In the 2013 election campaign, if you go back and you look at the Liberal Party's health policy pamphlet, basically, it clearly states the Liberal Party will support the transition to the Commonwealth paying 50 per cent of activity-based funding. That's what the Liberal Party said. They said they would match Labor's agreements with every state and territory on that. And what happened? They are now paying 45 per cent. The difference between 45 and 50 is $2.8 billion cut out of our public hospital system. Now Labor will take the Commonwealth share back to 50 per cent. But what we're also going to do is make sure we get elective surgery under control at our hospitals. We want to put $250 million back in to making sure that we actually get elective surgery waiting times down. We’ve also announced $500 million in addition to this for cancer patients, in outpatients and in surgery within our public hospitals. Labor will always, always fund our public hospitals better than the Liberal Party ever do.
JOURNALIST: You say that the cancer plan is about boosting competition, but haven't you given the impression to voters that all cancer treatment will be free if you're elected?
SHORTEN: No but we’ve said we are going to radically reduce the out-of-pockets. I can't stop a patient who just wants to go exclusively for private treatment and doesn’t want to go through the bulk-billing system. And nor should I if that's what someone wants to do. But what I can say to hundreds of thousands of Australians is that Labor will be alongside you in the fight of your life. The unarguable facts, the black and white facts, the unarguable proposition is that we, because we are going to wind back unsustainable tax concessions at the top end, and we’re going to wind back some of the free ride that multinationals have been having, so that we can pay for the most significant injection of new funds for cancer treatment since Medicare was created.
JOURNALIST: The Government tells us, right or wrong, that funding for this local area health network is up 89 per cent on 2012-13. Now that figure might be wrong, I can't vouch for that. Can you tell us, is the funding is up almost 90 per cent and if so, haven't you just walked into an example of actually pretty good government commitment to health?
SHORTEN: First of all, as you would know, this is a very fast-growing region. I don't know if you're aware, but Casey in the south-east, in this region, 362,000 people live here which is a massive growth on 10 years ago. It's projected these suburbs we are in now are going to grow to 560,000 people. There is no doubt in my mind that this Federal Government has walked away from promises it made to help the states fund 50 per cent of the health system, of the hospital system here.
This government tends to play a game with numbers. They tend to say because the population has increased and they're forced to spend more money than they previously did, that's the end of the matter. No, it is not. If you've promised Australians to meet 50 per cent of the hospital component, then you go back to 45 per cent, that is a cut, it is a cut, it is a cut. And the reality is that waiting times have gone up. So I don’t think it’s enough for the Government to say that they’re doing more than they once did, therefore they’re excused. The reality is that this is a cut on what they promised. It is not keeping pace with population growth. Take, for example, the mental health announcement we just made. There are tragedies in these communities. There are clusters of our young people who are self-harming, and worse. There have been funerals here where there’s been a thousand people and kids, they go along, where someone has taken their life. There are clusters of behaviour we need to help people with. It is not enough for this government to say that a patch-up job, not even keeping pace with the out-of-pockets is good enough. It’s just not. We want to promise Australians that if you have a diagnosis of cancer or someone you love has, we are going to invest more support than you've ever had before in the fight of your life.
JOURNALIST: Is health spending here at record levels, Mr Shorten, or is it not? It is a simple question - it is or it isn't?
SHORTEN: No, it is not a simple question because of this, the population growth ...
JOURNALIST: Is it at record levels or not?
SHORTEN: Sorry, you keep asking the question.
JOURNALIST: You keep dodging the question by not answering it, so is it at record levels or not. Because this is one of the confounding issues over the election campaign over whether you say there is more money on education or health or whether the Government says there is record levels on education and health. Simply, is it at record levels or not?
SHORTEN: This is a government who promised to spend a certain amount of money in order to get people's votes and then they broke their promise. This is a government who has cut $14 billion off what they promised in public schools. That's a fact. This is a government who promised to pay 50 per cent to the states for the administration and help in their hospitals and are paying 45 per cent. That is a cut. And unfortunately, we have a government who thinks that not keeping their promise, cutting services, is good enough. I tell you what, I’ve got a different plan. I’ve got a plan for all Australians, not just the corporates. The fact of the matter is that this government has pursued one economic plan for the last three years – a corporate tax cut for the big end of town. This government is fighting tooth and nail to retain unsustainable tax giveaways to the top end of town. They have not done enough to make multinationals pay their bills. So I'm not satisfied with the Government's history or record on these matters but indeed it’s not me who has to be satisfied, it is the Australian people. I'm the only leader in this election, out of me and the other fellow, who’s offering to put extra money into cancer. Is anyone here seriously saying that extra money into cancer is a bad idea? Is anyone seriously saying here that extra money into mental health to stop young people taking their lives is a bad idea? I didn't think so.
JOURNALIST: What consultations or procedures would be covered under this new Medicare item number? Is it all cancers or just certain cancers?
SHORTEN: It’s cancers, howsoever they are. We're not picking different cancers. But I might get Catherine to talk a bit further about the range of propositions that we’re going to do to help people with their out-of-pockets.
KING: It’s all cancers. And what we'll be doing is working both with the Diagnostic Imaging Association and health professionals there, as well as the cancer specialists to design new Medicare items, new Medicare bulk-billed items, to actually drive down the costs for patient care. We have got some work to do. This measure starts in 2020. We have got some work to do with both of those professions but we are very confident, particularly when it comes to consultations for cancer patients, that we can get the bulk-billing up from where it currently sits, so a cancer patients 36 per cent up to that 80 per cent that we've said publicly.
JOURNALIST: Are you worried about Malcolm Turnbull giving support to independents?
SHORTEN: No. No, I'm not. I think the issue though for the Government is that three years ago they said, "Vote for Malcolm Turnbull." All of them – Mr Morrison, Mr Dutton. They all queued up to have their photo taken with Mr Turnbull. They said, "If you vote Liberal and Malcolm Turnbull, that's what you'll have for three years." Ever since then they've had division and dysfunction and disunity. So I think that the one question, for instance the local member here in La Trobe, Jason Wood, he voted for Peter Dutton. He was happy to have Peter Dutton as Prime Minister but he's not happy to be photographed with Peter Dutton in his own electorate. The same goes for the Health Minister, the same goes for a range of Liberals in the south-east corridor. They gave Australia dysfunction and division, they’ve annoyed a lot of voters on the way through. I think the one question they have all got to explain is why isn't Malcolm Turnbull still Prime Minister of Australia?
JOURNALIST: On the question of independents, are you prepared to seek assurances of supply and confidence if necessary after the election?
SHORTEN: We’re intending to form a majority Government. That's the case we'll put to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: What if you don't form a majority...
SHORTEN: Well, before you write off our chances, I won't.
JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, Josh Wilson has said that Israeli checkpoints are places where people go to die. Julian Hill and Cathy O’Toole have made similar criticisms of checkpoints. Sue Lines has attacked the Israeli lobby in a speech, and Andrew Leigh once wrote that Australia needs to stop Israel going down a self-destructive path. Are you out of line with your MPs on increasing support for Israel? For Palestine, sorry.
SHORTEN: First of all, the MPs, Mr Wilson and Senator Lines have re-confirmed again this morning that they support Labor Party policy. For the sake of clarity, the Israeli Ambassador representing the Israeli Government said they could work with both sides of politics. Labor Party policy is very clear, and all of my candidates and members have signed up to it – a two state solution. Sorry, let me answer your questions. Our policy is very clear, we support a two-state solution – that is the right of Israel to exist behind safe and secure borders, and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood.
JOURNALIST: Mr Shorten, this morning you talked about lifting wages for people down at Spotswood. What do you say to small businesses who are going to pay extra to their staff? Are you telling them that they'll have to absorb the costs of passing on higher wages to their workers?
SHORTEN: We’ve got a lot of good news for small business. First of all that you can vote for either side of politics with the comfort of knowing that we are both committed to businesses under $50 million, reducing their tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent. So that’s good news. That frees up money for small business. But we’ve also got another exciting proposition for small business, which has been very well received when we explain it to people. It’s this. We want to give an accelerated depreciation to businesses who invest in productive investment greater than $20,000. Or to put in plain English, if a company, say they run a food business, want to buy a new fridge, what we are going to do under a Labor Government, and this hasn't been matched by the conservatives, is add 20 per cent extra tax deductibility on the investment. So if they are making a marginal decision to invest $200,000, under a Labor Government they'll be able to deduct, on top of what they can already deduct, an extra $40K. So this is good for small business.
In terms of wages, a lot of things get said about wages. We just simply say this – the problem in Australia is everything is going up except your wages. We want to have a discussion, we want to have a living wage not just a minimum wage. And what we want with that is to implement it in a consultative fashion. One of the things which has been lost in the Government's fear campaign is the detail that any wage increase has to be agreed by the independent umpire, and then it has to be implemented on economic capacity to pay. So I get that small business is hearing all sorts of, you know, scary and mad things from the Government. But I just, through you, Shane, want to reassure small business – we're the equal on tax, we're better on the deductibility for investment, and when it comes to wages we get that you have to implement these things in a modest and meaningful way. We have got to acknowledge capacity to pay. And, beyond that, when millions of Australians, be they people on the pension, be they wage earners, are experiencing wage stagnation, massive cost of living increases pressures, that means people have less to spend in the small businesses.
We need to be an economy which sees growth not just for big business, but for all Australians. And millions of Australian wage earners are now dipping into their household savings, living on the credit card far more than they should. That's because we’ve got a government who is out of touch and doesn't get the central importance of cost of living. Who’s next?
JOURNALIST: Clive Palmer has agreed to pay back Queensland Nickel...
SHORTEN: Oh, well done, Clive.
JOURNALIST: Does that make him more of a threat in the Senate?
SHORTEN: Listen, we talked about small business before. Most Australian businesses know they have to pay their workers every week, fortnight, or month. This guy wants a medal for, after a couple of years, to pay back money which the taxpayers had to subsidise. Do you know what I find it amazing? He could find $20 million or $30 million for TV advertising and billboards but he couldn't find the money to pay his workers. Ninety-nine per cent of reputable employers in this country pay the workers first, then pay for their own head to be on a billboard, not the other way around.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you about your fuel efficiency policy. Do you rule out exempting vehicles that sell less than 2,500 units from the policy?
SHORTEN: This is this government scare campaign. They can't work out who they are most days, this government. On one hand they say that electric vehicles are a bad idea. Now they’re saying that there’s a plan to exempt the rich. Can we just all tune out the Government noise on this and let's go to the fundamentals of our electric vehicle policy. By 2030, we have a target, that 50 per cent of new cars in Australia are electric-powered. Now this is not going to be as hard a target to reach as some say because from 2025, big companies like Toyota are only going to be making electric vehicles. Under this bunch of vandals called the Liberal Government of Australia, they got rid of our car industry. The fact of the matter is that Hyundai –Hyundai is a Korean company, is not greatly interested in Australian politics, but even Hyundai has had to come out and just set some facts on the record. No one’s ute is going to be confiscated. You can buy whatever car you want. But what this government actually wants you to do is to say to Australians: "We're going to give you old technology only. We don't want you buying cars which are going to be cheaper in the future and which are more fuel efficient." I mean, this is a government who wants to deny the car-buying public of Australia choice, competition and lower prices for cars.
JOURNALIST: On the fuel efficiency policy do you rule out that exemption for low-selling vehicles?
SHORTEN: For low-selling vehicles? Which vehicle models are you talking about?
JOURNALIST: Vehicles that sell 2,500 or less.
SHORTEN: For example? For example, which ones are they?
JOURNALIST: The Climate Change Authority which your policy is based on...
SHORTEN: I'm not familiar with those elite motor vehicles. Which sort of cars are you talking about?
JOURNALIST: Well, a lot are them are quite expensive cars, low-selling cars, are they going to be exempt under the policy?
SHORTEN: No, what is going to happen is that you’ve got to be fuel efficient and we are going to sit down with industry and work on it. But somehow if the Government is trying to say that Labor has a secret plot for there to be more Rolls-Royces in the garages, no, that’s just more sort of daily madness from the Government.
JOURNALIST: Do you have concerns about the Government asking the Health Department to cost your policies?
SHORTEN: Oh Lord. The Government, they've had six years and now all they can do is talk about us. Do you know my concern with the Government is that they haven’t worked out that out-of-pocket costs in cancer are a real issue. My concern with the Government is that they're not matching our proposal to have a mental health in-patient ward here. This government has had six years to come up with their great ideas in health. All they've done is cut. They haven't kept the promises they made early on. And as a result Australians have missed out.
JOURNALIST: Malc … Scott Morrison has nominated...
SHORTEN: Yeah, I know, it's confusing, don’t worry most Australians make that mistake.
JOURNALIST: ... April 29 or 30 for the Perth leadership debate. Will you accept either of those dates?
SHORTEN: Oh listen, I've got my diary, I spoke to the West Australian, we’ll give them two dates and I hope Mr Morrison can fit in with us. Mr Morrison – all of a sudden – he didn’t want to have Parliament now all of a sudden I’ve got to change my whole campaign to suit him. We will have debates. We will do the best we can to fit in with every state and every media outlet but there’s only 33 days or 34 days left.
JOURNALIST: On Peter Dutton, Labor have been running a hard campaign here in Victoria. Is he an electoral asset for you?
SHORTEN: I don't think the current Prime Minister or Mr Dutton have satisfactorily explained to Victorian voters or Australian voters why Malcolm Turnbull is no longer the Prime Minister. But Catherine King was the Shadow Minister for Health when that fellow was the Health Minister, so I would be keen to hear her insights.
KING: Peter Dutton is one of the most toxic people in Australian politics. We saw what he did to Labor's candidate in Dickson, the disgraceful comments he made saying that she was using her disability as somehow an excuse not to move into the electorate. Peter Dutton was the worst health minister in Australian history. And that’s not just me saying that, that was the Australian Medical Association, every doctor in the country said this is what this fellow did. And he was only Health Minister for one year. What did he do in that year? He wanted to impose a GP Tax on every single person, banking on massive savings with less people going to see the doctor, for their Budget. He cut $57 billion out of public hospitals. That’s what Peter Dutton did. Peter Dutton wanted everybody to pay more, including pensioners, for their medicines. This was Peter Dutton’s legacy as Health Minister, so you betcha we are going to be absolutely out there every day talking about Peter Dutton's record as Health Minister because 40 of his colleagues not that long ago, just a few scant months ago, wanted him to be Prime Minister of this nation, including Michael Sukkar in Deakin, including Jason Wood here in La Trobe and including the current Health Minister Greg Hunt all wanted this man, the worst Health Minister in Australia’s history, to be our Prime Minister.
SHORTEN: One more question, is there someone who hasn't had a go?
ROB: Mr Shorten, you're promising money for cancer. Now, I'm a CFA volunteer who has got cancer. I was promised by Mr Andrews, the Labor Premier, in 2015 that he would look after me. Mr Shorten, how are we supposed to believe your potential government when Mr Andrews has done nothing but make my life hard and that of other people, volunteers, with cancer. Honestly, Bill, it's just hard to believe that you're saying going to help out with cancer and everything else for people. I've spent the last four years in and out of hospital that long that my daughter is worried that is her dad ever going to come home. I have a six-year-old daughter.
SHORTEN: What's your first name, sorry?
ROB: Rob.
SHORTEN: Okay Rob, I appreciate you asking the question. I want to thank the media for letting somebody who is not a journalist to help us finish off the press conference. Rob, I’m going to take some time and have a chat to you after the conference because I want to understand what has happened. In terms of the contamination or the cancer would that be Fiskville?
ROB: No.
SHORTEN: What I would like to do is talk to you to understand the background. But in terms of how we pay for cancer in this country, I can't speak for Mr Andrews. I can pass on your disappointment to him, but I can't speak for him. But what I can speak for is – I haven't been Prime Minister in the last four years but if I am Prime Minister I do want to reduce your out of pocket costs. Now if you've had a very fortunate experience of everything's been free, that's great. But I can tell by the fact you’re shaking your head that that hasn’t happened. I want to do better. I apologise for what you've had to go through. I don't feel responsible for the current Government, but as anyone in public life I hate to see someone who has been a volunteer, you’ve got a six-year-old daughter, you're in the battle of your life – that's tough. What I can say to you is we are going to fund six million extra scans. What I can say to you and to everyone else is that we are going to fund three million extra visits to the specialists. What I can say to you is we are going to fund cancer research, put an extra $125 million into that. What I can say to you is that we are putting an extra $500 million into our hospitals. Rob, you don't have to believe anyone but I'm going to have a chat to you. I just want to understand because, to me, what you're talking about is the exact reason why I'm running for Prime Minister. You know, we can make all the chats about all of the other issues and the gossip and the Peter Dutton’s and the disputes, I get that sort of annoys people. If you're in the fight of your life, I am interested in your story, you matter to me, regardless of who wins or loses. So I appreciate you being here and I want to have a chat to you. Thanks, Rob, I think that's a pretty good note to end it on but we'll see each other on the trail. Thanks, everybody.
ENDS
