Scott Morrison, Greg Hunt, Medicare: This week's winners and losers in federal politics
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There were winners and losers on the Federal Government frontbench this week. Fran Kelly and Patricia Karvelas, hosts of the Party Room, go through their selections.
Loser: Scott Morrison
Scott Morrison is a loser this week over the saga involving the appointment of Anna Bligh as the head of the Australian Bankers' Association.
There were lots of reports that the Government and the Treasurer's office in particular were disgruntled.
When Mr Morrison did speak on the record about it, he used some pretty negative language: that he would deal with the Bankers' Association professionally, but that he would talk directly to chief executives rather than a go-between.
It looked like the government was being hyper-partisan on something that they didn't need to start a fight over.
There was no reason, it didn't help them. I think they lost: the Treasurer has bigger fish to fry.
Voters are sick of these insider disagreements. Patricia Karvelas
Winner: Medicare
The Medicare campaign run by Labor during the last federal election campaign was pretty toxic for the Government, and they haven't really recovered on this issue since, facing sustained pressure to reverse a policy position on the rebate.
Former health minister Sussan Ley was certainly interested in dealing with the freeze on the Medicare rebate, but it looks like Greg Hunt might be the one who's able to deliver.
It looks like Medicare, if you believe the substantial reporting by the ABC, might get a boost in the federal budget. Patricia
Winner: Greg Hunt
I agree with Patricia. Greg Hunt is the winner because, if it is as reported and the Medicare freeze is going to get lifted in the budget, that obviously means that the new Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has been given the all-clear to make that decision.
Sussan Ley wanted to do it and she made that pretty clear, but said on radio the money wasn't there in the budget to allow to. Obviously that has changed for political reasons.
The government needs this, so they're allowing Greg Hunt to spend the money. Fran
Loser: The Palestinians
I think it's pretty clear the Palestinians and supporters of their cause here in Australia have lost out this week: the prime minister has made it completely clear where Australia stands in relation to the Israel-Palestinian question.
Australia still supports a two-state solution, that hasn't changed. But the push to recognise an independent Palestinian state outside a two-state solution, as recognised by 137 countries at the UN, is not supported by Australia and, as Malcolm Turnbull's enthusiastic support for his Israeli counterpart indicates, it will not be recognised by a Turnbull government. Fran
Winner: The man in the housing affordability t-shirt
We talked about housing affordability this week on The Party Room, and when I was in Canberra recently, a friend told me how she spotted a guy doing laps of Parliament House wearing a t-shirt that said: "I'll give my vote to whichever party is brave enough to ban negative gearing."
When he was asked why he was walking around wearing this t-shirt, he said: "Because I've tried emails, I've emailed them hundreds of times, I don't get any answer. So I just thought I'd put it on a t-shirt and walk around Parliament House a few times so they had to see it."
That was three weeks ago, and now it's all anyone's talking about, so obviously those few laps around parliament house did the trick. Fran
Topics: turnbull-malcolm, health, political-parties, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
