Knives Are Out For The Medicare Bash, But Nowhere Near The Cake
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 31, 2004
As conspiracy theories go, this one certainly took the cake.
A ban on cutting cakes in public for Medicare's 20th birthday caused speculation yesterday that the Government had ordered the knife-free parties to avoid damaging publicity.
Flourishing a leaked email, Labor's health spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, claimed the Government had banned cake-cutting ceremonies at Monday's celebrations because it feared the images would fuel suggestions that it was ``taking the knife to Medicare".
``When they get the knife near Medicare they know Australians are going to believe they are chopping it up to destroy it. So they can't even do something as simple as cutting a birthday cake for Medicare," Ms Gillard said.
But Fiona McLean, spokeswoman for the Health Insurance Commission, which runs Medicare, claimed responsibility for the ban.
She said she did not want images of people putting the knife into the Medicare brand and that it was ``absolutely" her, not the Government, who was behind the knife ban.
Her email was sent to Medicare offices after a meeting this week at the office of the Health Minister, Tony Abbott.
It said Mr Abbott was hosting a party at a Medicare office and that government MPs had been invited to join in celebrations at their local Medicare office.
But local offices were instructed to ensure the MP ``does not put a knife into Medicare by cutting a cake".
``Have the cake and take it away (out the back) after the candles are blown out (if you want candles) and cut it up out the back away from the cameras," the email said.
Ms McLean's words prompted Mark Latham to comment that the Howard Government ``have been out the back for years trying to slice up Medicare".
© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald
