Sky News Sunday Agenda program, 1st November 2009

Interview with Shadow Health Minister, Peter Dutton

Helen Dalley: Liberal frontbencher Peter Dutton has a difficult job getting back into
parliament whenever the next election is called. His seat of Dickson on the edge of
Brisbane became extremely marginal after a recent redistribution. So much so that it is
now notionally a Labor electorate. So he tried to swap it for the safer option of the seat
of McPherson on the Gold Coast. But he missed preselection there and has now
decided to recontest Dickson, where he hopes to face the voters there after all. And Mr.
Dutton joins us now from Channel 7 studios in Brisbane.

Peter Dutton, thanks very much for joining us.

Peter Dutton: It’s a pleasure, Helen.

Helen Dalley: Now there’s a front page story in The Australian this weekend asserting
that even though you hadn’t decided anything, whether to stay or go after not winning
McPherson, so essentially while your body was still warm, Malcolm Turnbull was busy
making plans without you, offering your job to induce another MP to stay. How does that
make you feel?

Peter Dutton: Well you make it sound a little more dramatic than perhaps it was. I saw
the report yesterday, I can’t add anything to it. I think, Helen, the best way for the
Coalition to be elected at the next election is to put forward a positive policy suite that we
can say to the Australian people, we are an alternative government. We need to be
critical of the Rudd government where it’s necessary, and that’s what I’m focused on
going forward, not just in my own seat but also as part of our team in Canberra to take
the fight up to the Rudd government.

Helen Dalley: But Peter Dutton, I guess it wouldn’t make you feel good. You’re called a
rising star by most people, but Malcolm Turnbull had already dismissed you in his mind.

Peter Dutton: Well, Helen, you’ve got supporters and detractors in politics, more so than
any aspect of public life. I’m really focused on moving forward now. As I say, I saw the
report, I don’t have any comment in relation to it. Ours now is not to focus on ourselves
but to move forward with alternative policies, and most importantly on the issues that
matter to the Australian people, putting forward a credible alternative. And we’re in the
process of working that up now in relation to my own portfolio of health and aging. And I
think people will be quite excited about what we have to say in relation to hospitals and
how we’re going to fix them into the future.

Helen Dalley: Alright, well just before we get to those issues, which I know you do want
to talk about and obviously so do we, but are you saying that Mr. Turnbull could be a
detractor of yours?

Peter Dutton: No, not at all. Just let me make this very clear. I saw the report
yesterday, I don’t have any comment in relation to it. Malcolm has put his comments on
the record. I have a very good working relationship with Malcolm, as I do with the rest of
my colleagues, and the focus for us now has to be on policy and on taking the fight up to
the Rudd government . . .

Sunday Agenda 1st November 2009 Peter Dutton

Helen Dalley: Yes, but Mr. Dutton . . .

Peter Dutton: . . . and that’s what I’m intent on doing . . .

Helen Dalley: . . . Even though Mr. Turnbull has issued a denial, Fran Bailey, who is the
other MP according to the story in The Australian, is standing by her side of the story.
So it does sound like Mr. Turnbull was not going to fight tooth and nail for you. In fact he
was stepping over you.

Peter Dutton: Well as I say, Helen, I wasn’t able to comment any further than what the
public report was yesterday, so I’m happy to talk about . . .

Helen Dalley: . . . Have you spoken to Mr. Turnbull? . . .

Peter Dutton: . . . policy matters.

Helen Dalley: Have you spoken to him since?

Peter Dutton: Look I speak to Malcolm very frequently, and most of the time that we
spend together is talking about our alternative health policy, and that’s what I’m focused
on.

Helen Dalley: Alright. Well just before we get to that alternative health policy, it is a
difficult path for you now, isn’t it? Because firstly you have to get past the preselectors
again in Dickson, but aren’t the voters of Dickson, even if you get past the preselectors,
going to think you gave up on them when you decided not to recontest there and you
tried to jump into a safe seat?

Peter Dutton: Well it is going to be a tough fight, there’s no question about that. But the
only way that we can win the next election is if we are a credible alternative government.
And the best contribution I can make to the Coalition and to my colleagues is to win the
seat of Dickson, and that way we can be rid of the Rudd government as soon as
possible. It’s not going to be an easy task. I’ve got to say to the people in Dickson that I
respectfully ask for their support at the next election for a couple of reasons. Firstly
because of what I’ve been able to do for our local community in working with our local
community. We’ve been able to deliver a lot of positive outcomes over the course of the
last eight years. But also that I have a plan for our local community going forward. And
that’s what I’ll be communicating to the local residents in my electorate over the coming
months, or 12 months ahead before the next election. And really that’s the subject of my
focus now.

Helen Dalley: But you weren’t going to concentrate on local issues in Dickson, you were
going to try and make a jump to local issues in McPherson on the Gold Coast. Do you
think it now becomes so tricky? Did you make a mistake by dumping one seat to try and
nab a safer seat?

Peter Dutton: Well I’ve made plenty of comments in relation to this issue, and the one
point that I would make is that a lot of people were frustrated in my electorate, myself
included, in relation to the electoral commission, essentially with a stroke of a pen
turning Dickson into a Labor seat. It’s frustrating because I’ve worked hard with the local
community and, as I say, we’ve been able to achieve a lot. The difference between

Sunday Agenda 1st November 2009 Peter Dutton

myself and the candidate that’s in opposition to me at the next election is that I do have
the experience. I do have a strong voice in the federal parliament, and I’m not sure that
the Labor Party needs to be electing another union official to the federal parliament. I
think Australians like my constituents believe that the Labor Party have enough union
officials in the federal parliament, and they’re the sorts of things that we’re going to be
talking about locally in Dickson.

Helen Dalley: Let’s look at the health portfolio. Why are you and the crossbench
senators not in favour of the government’s cut in the Medicare rebate for the most simple
cataract surgery which can take less than half an hour to perform?

Peter Dutton: Because we’re on the side of patients, that’s why. Nicola Roxon’s
ideological attack on doctors seems to know no bounds. And by attacking the doctors
personally, I think it shows a real bent against what doctors are trying to do, and that is
help their patients. Now the Minister’s had six months since this budget announcement
to produce even one shred of evidence about her claims in relation to doctors, so she’s
not been able to do that. And so what we’ve said is that this attack is not going to prove
to be a blow on doctors, it’s going to be a blow on patients. And by cutting the rebate
from $600 odd down to just over $300, and now we hear with the most recent change
that patients will be out of pocket just under $300, that’s unacceptable. Because
cataract surgery is one of those surgeries, Helen, for older Australians in particular,
which can be life changing. We know that older Australians with failing eyesight have a
greater propensity to fall; not only does that cause pain and suffering on them, but it also
causes great financial burden on our public hospitals. And if we’re going to be
increasing pressure on public hospitals at a time when Kevin Rudd said that he was
going to fix them, then that just doesn’t make good policy sense and it doesn’t make for
good health outcomes for Australians either.

Helen Dalley: In question time on Thursday, Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner,

accused your side of blocking key savings measures in order to protect the spending
that benefits wealthy people and very well off doctor specialists. Now is that a fair point?
This particular one that you quoted, which the rebate the Minister now put up to $340,
it’s simple surgery and some doctors are getting rich out of Medicare, aren’t they?

Peter Dutton: Helen, when you say it’s simple surgery, it’s simple, and I know the
Minister has cited this example, it’s simple in Africa and some third world countries
where it’s performed very quickly. But a high number of those people actually go blind
as a result of the operation. We are talking about Australia in the 21st century. People
don’t expect to go blind when they have cataract surgery. They expect it to be
performed to the highest standard. Ophthalmologists have trained for years and years.
Their professional development is ongoing. The technological advances that have taken
place in the industry mean that they are using expensive equipment. And the Minister
has thrown out all of these claims in relation to the periods of time that it takes to perform
this surgery, but do you know that she has no data to back that up? This is a claim
which has been plucked out of the air by the Minister. And as I say, if the Rudd
government is on some sort of ideological drive to bash up doctors, then that’s not going
to be good for patients. If there are changes to be made, efficiencies to be gained, well
let’s have that debate. But at the moment after six months, the Minister has not been
able to produce any evidence to that effect.

Sunday Agenda 1st November 2009 Peter Dutton

Helen Dalley: But as stimulus spending starts to wind back and budget deficits are a
concern, aren’t spending cuts going to have to be made across the board, including in
health?

Peter Dutton: Well efficiencies do have to be made in health. And the National Health
and Hospitals Reform Commission recently reported that up to 25 percent efficiencies
can be gained in our public hospitals. But do you know, Helen, since the November
2007 election, two years this month since the Rudd government was elected, when they
made that now broken promise that they would fix public hospitals, many of the
indicators in our hospitals have actually got worse. That’s why in the Coalition we’re
putting together a plan to fix our public hospitals. We don’t believe that pouring good
taxpayers’ dollars after bad into public hospitals to employ more spin doctors by the
state government is a good plan. We’re actually opposed to that . . .

Helen Dalley: . . . Do you think hospitals should be taken over by the feds from the
states?

Peter Dutton: Well I’ve said on the public record before, Helen, that I’m opposed to a
concentration of power, a swelling of our bureaucracy in Canberra, but I am in favour for
argument’s sake . . .

Helen Dalley: . . . But you’re also just talking about the swelling of bureaucracy at the
state level as well. Wouldn’t it be better to take it away from the states?

Peter Dutton: Well I strongly believe in a single funding model. I think that is very
important and that is at the core of some of the difficulties that we’ve got at the moment
with the shift of blame that still exists today, that Mr. Rudd promised to fix and end the
blame game, and that on health the buck would stop with him. None of that’s happened.
That was all rhetoric. But I am in favour of simplified funding models. I am in favour of
local boards for argument’s sake where the federal government could provide support
directly into hospitals. But we can’t see a continuation of the inefficiency in the delivery
of services in public hospitals the way it’s operated over the last ten years by Labor
governments. And more and more each day, Kevin Rudd sounds like a state Labor
premier. It’s all promise and no delivery in relation to health.

Helen Dalley: Peter Dutton, just looking at another issue, would it worry you if Barnaby
Joyce quit the Coalition? If those criticising him don’t stand up as he’s demanding,
wouldn’t it be better for the Liberals to perhaps have him out of the Coalition, and then
you could do a deal with the government on the ETS and climate change legislation?

Peter Dutton: Well Barnaby’s future obviously is a matter for him, and the way in which
he enters these debates is an issue for him. So I don’t have a comment to make in
relation to that. But I would make this general comment. The Rudd government
became successful after years of disunity under Mark Latham and under Kim Beazley
recycled a couple of times and under Simon Crean, when they were unified, when they
presented a viable alternative government. And when the backbench and the
frontbench at the moment is able to hold their tongue against Kevin Rudd on the issue of
asylum seekers, they are still able to hold their position in the standing, not just in the
polls but in the mind of the Australian people as well. Many people on the backbench
and on the frontbench talk in private about their disgust towards Kevin Rudd and the way
in which he’s conducted himself on this asylum seeker issue, but they haven’t been
speaking out publicly. And that’s the big difference at the moment . . .

Sunday Agenda 1st November 2009 Peter Dutton

Helen Dalley: . . . So are you essentially saying to Barnaby Joyce to button up?

Peter Dutton: No, what I’m saying is that if we want to be successful at the next election,
we can’t do it if we present in a disunified manner. And we’ve got to have all of our
debates about issues that are important to us, we do that in the party room. But going
forward, our obligation is if we’ve got a problem, to talk to our colleagues about it in the
privacy that the Labor Party do it in. They have heated arguments and there are many
sceptics in relation to climate change in the Labor Party, but they hold their views
privately, they have their private discussions, and then publicly they present in a unified
manner. And that is exactly what the Coalition has got to do, or we are going to be no
chance at the next federal election.

Helen Dalley: Peter Dutton, we will leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us.

Peter Dutton: Thanks, Helen, it’s a pleasure.

Sunday Agenda 1st November 2009 Peter Dutton