Federal PoliticsFact CheckerArticle

Did Abbott rip $1b out of hospitals?

Date August 15, 2013 - 12:14PM




Peter Martin and Flynn Murphy

Kevin Rudd's claim is false.
The claim

In arguing that Tony Abbott will cut "to the bone" spending on health and education, Kevin Rudd has no more serious charge than the one he wheeled out again in the debate on Sunday night.

"That's what Mr Abbott did when he was health minister, when he took $1 billion out of hospital funding for the states at a time when he had responsibility to oversee that expenditure," Rudd said.

It's a charge with an impressive lineage. Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner, Penny Wong, Nicola Roxon, Tanya Plibersek and Julia Gillard have all repeated it. It was even printed on a 2010 Labor campaign leaflet. It read: "Tony Abbott cut $1 billion from health and hospitals. Don't let Abbott cut health funding again."

Supporting evidence

It goes back to the 2003 budget. It delivered not a cut in hospital funding (as Rudd says) or a cut in health and hospital funding (as Labor says) but an increase in hospital funding for the next five-year intergovernmental agreement. The increase was around $1 billion less than foreshadowed a year earlier, but it was an increase nonetheless.

The 2003 budget papers explained the increase in funding for public hospitals was less than had been foreshadowed partly because "more services are being provided in private hospitals following the introduction of the government's 30 per cent private health insurance rebate".

Does it stack up?

It was an increase, not a cut. Under the new agreement, states were offered “up to an additional $10 billion to help run public hospitals,” but instead of receiving up to $43 billion as had been foreshadowed over the five years they were offered up to $42 billion.

It was a "cut" only in the sense that someone who is led to believe they will get a pay rise and then doesn't get all of it believes they have had a pay cut.

And Abbott wasn't the health minister at the time. He was the minister for employment and workplace relations.

Abbott became health and ageing minister on October 7 2003, five months after the 2003 budget and one month after the last of the disgruntled state and territory health ministers signed up to the new agreement.

Kay Patterson was the health minister who stared down the states in the bitter and protracted dispute, a fact Rudd tacitly acknowledged on Sunday night when he used convoluted language to say Abbott took "$1 billion out of hospital funding for the states at a time when he had responsibility to oversee that expenditure".

Abbott didn't set up the agreement that was worth $1 billion less than expected. He merely presided over it.

Statistics compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that under Abbott, commonwealth funding of public hospitals climbed 4 per cent in 2003-4, 7 per cent in 2004-5, 4 per cent in 2005-6 and 6 per cent in 2006-7.
Finding

Tony Abbott neither “took $1 billion out of hospital funding for the states” nor presided over a cut.
The charge is serious and personal.

A Politifact rating of "false" applies where a statement is not accurate.

PolitiFact rates kevin Rudd's claim that Tony Abbott took $1 billion out of hospital funding for the states "false".
Details at www.politifact.com.au

Another Labor lie bites the dust.

and this is a REAL lie, not the kind of lies some idiots on here sprout

longweekend58 wrote on Aug 15^th, 2013 at 12:58pm:



Yes it is, & glad to see you acknowledge your faults re CT/BER

When your own long term supporters start calling you a liar, you're in big trouble.
Rudd is running out of friends, but we know that . . .Combet & & & &
Never mind, he's still King of the Kids, even if they have to be trained by the teachers to chant his name.

It's worth repeating for the benefit of those Labor supporters who are slow to digest the truth . . .and let's face it, most of them are:

Tony Abbott neither “took $1 billion out of hospital funding for the states” nor presided over a cut.
PolitiFact rates kevin Rudd's claim that Tony Abbott took $1 billion out of hospital funding for the states "false".

bogarde73 wrote on Aug 15^th, 2013 at 3:59pm:



Yes but no worse than the Carbon Tax lie.

But apparently I should feel shame & embarrassment for Rudd bullsh!t, & in a way I do.
Pathetic semantics are what is killing our democracy.

Dsmithy70 wrote on Aug 15^th, 2013 at 4:10pm:


its not even close to the carbon tax 'lie'.  this abbott claim firstly was about an action that Abbott had nothing to do with and wasn't a cut anyhow but rather a $10B increase instead of an $11B one.  it is a fundamental and inexcusable lie.

You can make a credible argument that the carbon tax promise was a bald-faced lie.  You may not be able to prove it but nor can you disprove it.  The abbot lie that labor tells is demonstrably and provably false.

buzzanddidj wrote on Aug 15^th, 2013 at 5:02pm:


The point is that Abbott has been FALSELY ACCUSED by labor of cutting $1B from a budget when he wasn't even health minister at the time and nor was it a cut in the first place.

This speaks volumes of Labors integrity but also of its (in)ability to get anything right.  Google could have told you the facts but Labor with the resources of govt still cant get it right.