Greg Hunt

So it's not as if this was a deep and abiding mystery.

Like, how could we have seen this? It is just a – and Greg Hunt and other coalition health ministers over the journey – equally culpable, just sitting by and saying, well, you know, we'll just keep taxing it.

And it got to a point, there was that point, there was actually that point.

We hit it in about 2019 where the excise, they stopped collecting the excise at the same rate because that's when people started switching to black market tobacco.

Oh, precisely.

And if you recall, I think on our last episode, I spoke about Greg Hunt.

He was the health minister for Australia at the time, and I believe it was February of 2021.

He literally came out and said, we're engaged in the world's largest clinical trial.

And I knew the players.

So this was not a position that Greg Hunt had advertised for.

In fact, you might remember that there was no deputy chief medical officer position until Greg Hunt announced it at a press conference.

And he announced Paul Kelly first, and then they realized they needed more people.

The other

Yeah, I mean, it almost depends on what mood I'm in at the time when that question is asked.

I'll try and be relatively consistent with what I say.

But the first time I was really in front of the cameras was at a press conference with Maurice Payne and Greg Hunt, and we were announcing the number of ventilators that we were going to procure.

And this

MTOP became big during Greg Hunt's tenure.

Yeah.

And Mark Butler, I think, has followed that because, of course, they're making human decisions about individuals so that you know.

Our unemployment was lower than it was b- before, and that didn't happen by accident.

Um, Josh and I and, and Mathias and Greg Hunt and Michael McCormick, and we pulled together a really good economic plan which got people through, and I, I'll never forget the day we announced JobKeeper.

Josh and I were very conscious that this w- this had to work.

Uh, people were losing hope, and they were scared.

What, what, what, what do you do? You fucking double down is what you do, 'cause their fucking cracks are, are fucking starting to appear.

You know, when I first did this eight years ago, and fucking Greg Hunt from Somerville in Victoria, which is where I went to school, in Somerville, and, uh, and, and I tried to talk to him about this and, um, he's a pig of a man.

Uh, most politicians are.

They're really just puppets, mate.

I've got letters from prime ministers, from health departments for years.

Uh, you know, these people are gonna be held accountable one day, uh, very soon when, uh, when it becomes, uh, when it becomes known that this is a thing and there were people who are actually stopping it from coming out.

And, you know, even in the time, you know, the six years since I spoke to, uh, Greg Hunt, the health minister, I would say that at least ten million people have died taking their life, um, uh, and probably, you know, 300 million of them have, um, had the most terrible time.

That could have been helped if that one person didn't think about his pocket, didn't think about his political party, didn't think about, um, uh, didn't think about the economic system, thought about the humanitarian system and, and what this means for people.

so messed up.

I'll give, I think it was then, I can't remember whether it was Greg Hunt or whether it was Mark Butler at that stage.

It would have been Hunt at that point.

All kudos to ministers every time we've written and chucked a wobbly and said, sorry, this is not about patience.

They keep on turning up and trying to influence government policy, and this campaign on tobacco tax has been another example.

But Australia is... regaining its status as one of the leaders in the world when it comes to tobacco control and governments have to have the guts to you know stick to their guns stick to their commitment to driving smoking rates down and we're watching that happen real time so people should be proud that despite all the enormous pressure from the tobacco industry to the contrary This government and previous governments, an important ground to recognize that Mark Butler's predecessor, Greg Hunt, as the liberal health minister, was also committed to this policy.

These policies are working.

And so Australia is looking to regain our status as one of the most important leaders internationally.