This article from the national broadcaster by a medically trained journo has a bit more background.

This time I don’t blame the Patriarchy, I blame the majority of Australians who voted this set of vampires into office.
In Australia voting, or at least turning up at a polling place to have your name ticked off on the rolls, is compulsory.

At least I would have guarenteed health care, though. Crappy though it may be.

If only they could come up with a pill to make certain aussie men less sexy.

It’s worse even than you guessed, our Twisty. When you say “the healthy pinkness of rural Aussies”, think of our outlying Aboriginal communities, where housing, health and even water availability are so sub-standard, the life expectancy is more than 20 years lower than metropolitan Australians, and petrol sniffing is rife. Like all people in pitiful conditions, women and children bear the brunt of the violence it engenders.

Good old Ron Boswell wants to restrict their access to abortion, but you can probably guess how little he’s done to improve infant mortality rates, or the prospects for kids in these areas.

Other highlights of Ron’s political stance are opposing gay marriage and superannuation rights for gays in committed relationships, opposing anyone not demonstrably hetero from teaching in schools etc (because, you see, unlike hetero teachers, gay and transgender teachers introduce adult sex issues to children simply by existing), but interestingly he wants to acknowledge gay “spouses” for the purposes of imprisoning them under our proposed new draconian terror laws.

But can I at least say the same country that voted for Ron Boswell, also voted for Bob Brown and his Greens party in huge numbers, and more each election, and the Greens stand for everything that makes Ron Boswell foam at the mouth.

Living OS, and reading the main thrusts of the last electoral argument- how much of a tax cut will you give me? Forget Iraq, or anything even vaguely substantial. I recall feeing physically ill.

Rural healthcare is a huge issue in this country, but obviously this is just a smokescreen for Abbott and his friends (including Boswell’s) anti-abortion views.

By the way, it is very rare for the Health Minister to give or withhold approval for a particular medication. Minister being a political, rather than a medical appointment and all. There is a statutory body (Therapeutic Goods Administration) which processes all applications for pharmaceuticals to enter the market. It is only in cases of controversy (ie political footballs which can be kicked into the nets of the ratbag religious neo-right) that the minister makes his presence felt. Fighting flaccidity with Viagra is OK though. Wielding the penis is the work of God.