Opposition Leader Bill Shorten arrives at the Australian Labor Party 2016 federal election campaign launch at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, in Penrith, NSW.
Advertisement
“I’ve never heard them explain it quite as well as you”.
Looking back on it now, the Turnbull performance in February a year ago was nearly a dress rehearsal for the statement he delivered seven months later, when he announced that he was challenging Abbott for the nation’s top job. I wish to acknowledge your government, Bob.
Since 2014, the Government has been considering privatising a swathe of government payments, including Medicare, to modernise the decades old system and potentially save billions of dollars.
A weekend gun attack by an American-born Muslim on a gay nightclub in Florida that left 49 dead has focused Australia’s election campaign on the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.
This is despite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull strenuously denying that he will “never ever” privatise Medicare, and calling Mr Shorten’s scare campaign “shocking”.
But the ALP has seized on new details of a Productivity Commission inquiry into competition for a range of government services, commissioned by the treasurer, Scott Morrison, to back its claim and pronounce the election a “referendum on Medicare”.
“No one believes you, Malcolm”, Mr Shorten told reporters on Monday.
“There will be no outsourcing of any elements of the Medicare service now delivered by government, full stop – there is no privatisation of Medicare”.
He was also asked multiple questions about corporate tax cuts, health spending, immigration and mental health programs.
“So what you’re voting on, if you regard your vote as being… for the next three years, I’m asking for a three-year renewal of my government’s job serving you”.
“So I would hope that the plebiscite could be held before the end of the year”.
While acknowledging the government’s policy of offshore processing was “harsh”, Mr Turnbull said it was essential to preventing the people smuggling trade restarting. “We can do anything but we’ve got to be innovative, got to be competitive, got to be productive”.
Advertisement
“Let me be very clear about this, and this was the theme of my address at the iftar – we are the most successful multicultural society in the world”, he said.
