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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Lisa Cox

Anne Ruston defends past comments that Medicare ‘is not sustainable’ after PM names her as health minister if re-elected

Anne Ruston Medicare Scott Morrison Coalition Labor Anthony Albanese Jim Chalmers
Minister for Health Anne Ruston at a press conference at Westmead Children’s Hospital on Day 7 of the 2022 federal election campaign, in Sydney, in the Division of Parramatta.
Labor’s Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers says appointment of Anne Ruston to health portfolio should Coalition be re-elected should ‘send a shiver down the spine’ of Australians who rely on affordable healthcare. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Labor says the appointment of Anne Ruston to the health portfolio in a re-elected Coalition government would mean cuts to Medicare, pointing to past comments by the senator that the costs of the health scheme were unsustainable.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Sunday that Ruston would take over the health and aged care ministry vacated by the retiring Greg Hunt, if the Coalition wins the election on 21 May.

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