Other letters though, Anne Ruston has no idea about.
Asked about this story from the ABC (headline: Aspen Medical was given more than $1 billion in government PPE contracts despite no experience in large-scale procurement), she draws a blank:
Q: Finally, if the Coalition wins, you’ll be health minister. I want to ask you about a Four Corners story tonight which has the current health minister Greg Hunt sign a glowing letter of recommendation for a healthcare-connected company whilst it was in the midst of negotiations with his department for a lucrative multimillion-dollar PPE deal. That company, Aspen Medical, would win contracts without a public tender worth more than $1.1bn. Does that sound right to you?
Ruston:
Well, obviously, the details of which you’re referring to, I am unaware. But I would say that the health response that we have put in place, particularly through the pandemic, has been second to none around the world. And we, obviously, I think, can be very proud as a nation, collectively, all Australians, about the way that we’ve come through the pandemic and it has been our health services that have underpinned that success.
Q: But the question that I was asking, you don’t really need to know much about the issue. But according to Four Corners, health minister Greg Hunt wrote a letter supporting it in the midst of the tender negotiations. Is that the right thing for any minister to do?
Ruston:
I’m unaware of the details you’re referring to. But as I said, the necessity for the support that we received right across the board in our health response during the pandemic was the absolute underlying reasons why so many tens of thousands of Australian lives were saved during the pandemic and I think that all Australians can be tremendously proud of the health response to have the economic response and the strong economy that we are today and the envy of the rest of the world.
Anne Ruston, who would be the health minister in a re-elected Morrison government, was asked why, given that the head of Uniting Care backed a 25% pay increased for aged care workers – which Labor has pledged to support – the Coalition does not:
Well, we absolutely acknowledge the need that people who work in the aged care need to be paid appropriately, but we also believe that the Fair Work Commission is the appropriate independent body to make a decision about what that should be. We are absolutely committed and have been on the record as saying that the decision of the Fair Work Commission will be honoured by the government. But we are not going to intervene in the Fair Work Commission. It is independent. Mr Albanese has made comments, but I mean, what he’s so far said is that his action on the basis of the comments is that he’s going to write a letter to the Fair Work Commission. We will honour the Fair Work Commission but we also honour the hardworking staff in the aged care facilities.
This “write a letter” line the Coalition keeps using, seems to imply that it doesn’t believe prime ministers have much influence. Curious.
Good morning
Welcome to day 22 of the election campaign. There are now three weeks to go.
Absolutely every day counts now too. Pre-polls open next week and voters who haven’t been paying attention will begin turning their mind towards who to vote for, meaning the parties are going to be slogging it out each and every day.
According to the latest Newspoll, there’s been no shift in the two-party-preferred for the second week in a row.
After launching Labor’s campaign in Western Australia on Sunday, Anthony Albanese has headed back east, to Brisbane. Scott Morrison spent last night at home and will begin his campaign day in Sydney.
While the main campaigns are under way, inner-city Liberals, including Josh Frydenberg, are fighting off strong independent challengers to keep what are usually safe Liberal seats. Frydenberg, who has been accusing his challenger, Monique Ryan, of being nothing more than a slogan and a billboard, has erected a billboard with a new “keep Josh” slogan and appeared on the front page of the Herald Sun with his family and dog, pleading for his job.
If any of those seats fall, Morrison will need to offset those losses and he’s looking at western Sydney and outer suburban seats for possible gains.
And both sides are waiting on the RBA to meet to decide what it is doing with the cash rate target tomorrow, with cost of living dominating the campaign whether the government wants it to or not.
We’ll bring you all the days events as they happen. Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst and Josh Butler will explain the day, as well as ferret out what’s happening behind the campaigns, with the entire Guardian brains trust at your disposal. You have me, Amy Remeikis, with you for most the day. It seems we’ve the entered espresso-martini-for-breakfast side of the campaign, but alas there are rules about that. So four coffees it is. Grab yours and let’s get into it.
