Medicare in trouble for spending $4000 on urgent care teddy bears
The bears were for MPs to promote urgent care clinics, explained the department's secretary.
Bureaucrats have been forced to defend their decision to spend $4000 of taxpayer cash on teddy bears to promote Medicare’s GP urgent care clinics.
During a Senate Estimates hearing on Thursday, Senator Anne Ruston began by taking exception to the allegedly extravagant cost of promoting Medicare’s 40th anniversary.
And it was Rachel Balmanno — First Assistant Secretary, People, Communication and Parliamentary Division — who bore the brunt of her rage.
Asked how much the Department for Health and Aged Care had spent on teddy bears, Ms Balmanno initially seemed surprised, explaining that the $18,300 cost of celebrating Medicare’s anniversary had involved no bear-related expenses.
