KIERAN GILBERT: Senator Birmingham, I want to bring you into the discussion now, as you heard there from Bill Shorten, the message from Labor will be that this is a show of solidarity, that it’s all shoulders to the wheel and that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard share values in terms of the education… health services and strength of the economy. Are you worried that that show of unity could help Labor and help Labor turn things around midway through the campaign.
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Kieran, it’s amazing to hear Bill Shorten say at the end there that Julia Gillard shares the same values, aspirations and motivations as does Kevin Rudd, because that then begs the question of why did they axe the previous Prime Minister for the new Prime Minister? How can the new Prime Minister have travelled the country saying the Government had lost its way if she shares all of the same values and aspirations as the old Prime Minister? I mean Kieran, if Australia re-elects this bad Government, we will simply end up with a badly dysfunctional Government, because no amount of masking over the cracks by the Labor Party can cover up the deep divisions that run through the Labor Party because of the actions of Bill Shorten and others in executing a Prime Minister at the height of his power in the first term of office, I mean it was a remarkable gesture at the time and it will have long-lasting consequences. Bill Shorten expects to be a Minister in a Julia Gillard Government, I’m sure. Kevin Rudd expects to be a Minister in a Julia Gillard Government. This will not lead to a functional relationship, I mean even Nelson Mandela couldn’t manage reconciliation on a scale that would be necessary to have Bill Shorten and Kevin Rudd sitting around the table working together as Ministers into the future. It just will not work and the divisions that exist in the Labor Party are going to haunt them not just through this campaign as they are, but if they’re re-elected they’re going to plague the Government and damage Australia into the future and that’s just something that we can’t afford.
 
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Senator Birmingham, Labor has been struggling in Queensland… really hard to imagine it could get worse… surely if former Prime Minister Rudd is campaigning in Queensland saying ‘look, the Labor Government is the right choice’ that that should help neutralise things a little at least?
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Well, I note Kevin Rudd has left plenty of ‘out’ clauses there, as to what his involvement in the campaign will be, as to whether he will or will not attend the campaign launch. He of course is a big distraction for this campaign for the Labor Party and it’s more than a distraction, though, because a distraction makes it sound like something irrelevant, whereas the changing [of] Prime Minister just showed how badly this Government was doing and how badly, of course, they were desperate for a new way forward. Now, they’ve failed, I think, to be able to capitalise on that. Now, in a sense, that some of them are hoping that Kevin Rudd can help dig Julia Gillard out of the hole, well you’ve got to wonder what type of hole and mess they’ve got themselves into if the answer is for Julia Gillard to look back to Kevin Rudd to help her get through this election campaign. 
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Okay, before we move onto other issues I want to just get Bill Shorten’s view and response to that, and particularly is it about digging Labor out of the hole in Queensland, Bill Shorten?
 
I listened to Simon for three and a half, four minutes and I waited for him to talk about a single issue which will affect voters in terms of schools and health care… not a word. If Simon were to…
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Forgive me for answering the questions I was asked, Bill.
 
BILL SHORTEN: No, no.
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Forgive me for answering the questions I was asked.
 
BILL SHORTEN: I tell you, what I’m going to do is talk about what’s important to people, and I think you…
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Oh, you’re going to dodge the questions you’re asked, then?
 
BILL SHORTEN: Alright, well when you’re finished interrupting, I’m happy to go…
 
 
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Senator Birmingham, the health plan announced today… long awaited… 1500 more beds, but you’re scrapping the GP Super Clinics…
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Kieran, Tony Abbott is going to announce our health policy today and it’s an exciting health policy that the Liberal and National Parties are putting forward, and it contrasts with Labor’s approach to health, because our policy will be a 3.1 billion dollar commitment for some 2800 additional hospital beds, including 800 mental health beds and this is about more beds rather than Labor’s policy for a big new bureaucracy to manage our hospitals. The other contrast will be in terms of how hospitals are managed – Labor wants to insert a new level of management in the system, we want to empower local health professionals, local doctors, and make sure that they have the capacity to run Australia’s hospitals as efficiently and effectively for their local communities as possible…
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Bill Shorten…
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: … and lastly…
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Oh, sorry, Simon, I’ll let you finish.
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: … and lastly, in relation to GP services, rather than doing as Labor has done and promise some new Super Clinics that in most parts of Australia never eventuate, we want to actually fund GP services in a manner that will ensure that they actually can be delivered, and they provide better after hours services effectively and make the existing system work better rather than promising the types of things that Labor has promised but never delivered on.
 
 
KIERAN GILBERT: Julia Gillard, like Bill Shorten, Senator Birmingham, was targeting the Abbott record, saying he was one of the longest serving Health Ministers in the nation’s history and if there are doctor shortages, nurses shortages, well some of the blame has to rest at his feet.
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Kieran, I heard Julia Gillard on the ABC earlier this morning and in politics, and particularly in policy areas like health, so often there is that classic old case of ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’. Now, if the Government wants to throw around suggestions that somehow health funding was cut under the previous Coalition Government, they can do so but it’s just not true and the facts don’t stand up to their claims. Indeed, if the Government wants to claim, as they are… if they want to claim, as they are, as I think I heard Julia Gillard say this morning, that there’s some 50 per cent increase in funding for hospitals, that’s just downright misleading. It’s misleading because all they’ve done is shuffle money from the States into the Commonwealth pot. What we see from this Government on health is a lot of ‘smoke and mirrors’ tricks, a lot of shifting of funding, a lot of shifting of responsibility, but it’s not delivering outcomes on the ground in Australia’s hospitals. That’s why our policy…
 
 
BILL SHORTEN:  … when you say that things aren’t happening, I was there, I’ve seen it with my own eyes and I know that for a whole lot of battlers it means they’re going to get better medical care more quickly, it’s real.
 
 
SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Bill, the Australian people will be able to choose, we’ll be offering 2800 extra hospital beds, 800 extra mental health beds, real rebates for GPs to make sure they provide after hours services to take the stress off those emergency department boards… that is the type of action the Australian people want, not the type of high falutin’ restructuring of who’s responsible in a bureaucracy for the health systems that Labor’s proposing.