Goober made the point about socialised health care being popular where it exists. I'm no expert in this - probably like many people in Australia - but I know what I like. I won't try and give a chapter and verse history of socialised medicine in this country but the conservatives have tried to attack it since it was introduced by a Labor (social democratic party to the Left of the US Democratic Party) in about 1972. It has been nibbled at by successive conservative governments but even the most radical reactionary of any conservative government we have ever had (the current Howard government) wouldn't attack our health system. They know that they would be driven from office and kept out of office for many years if they tried to dismantle it. They've done some bad things simply on the basis of ideology but even this mob of right wing nutters won't shoot themselves in the head by totally privatising our system.

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"There were no D-Day Heroes in 1973" - Cold Chisel Khe Sanh