Federal minister Vote (%)

Peter Dutton 46

Tanya Plibersek 8

Nicola Roxon 17

Tony Abbott 13

Paul Smith Australian Doctor editor

PICTURE CREDIT

“ I was intrigued . Who was doing

this voting ? So , I looked it up .”

space – time continuum . Those min-

This was veteran broadcaster

isters included Sussan Ley and Greg

Steve Price on Sky News a few weeks back talking about his attempt at investigative journalism .

With the election looming , he was annoyed by the constant and wide-

Steve Price presents his investigation on Sky News .

Hunt . And there is also the current incumbent , Mark Butler , who seems keener than most to repeat the 2015 poll results despite ( or perhaps

spread regurgitation of an AusDoc

because of ) their use-by date .

poll that asked our readers who , in

“ And one doctor , one , said that

here , he issued ‘ a clarification ’ on

poll he suggested did not take place .

What about the unnamed per-

their view , was the worst health min-

Peter Dutton was gullible and the

Sky News , admitting his bizarre bun-

Given the headline result of the

son , referred to by Mr Price , who

ister in Medicare history .

worst health minister in history .

gle after receiving a call from Media

poll ( see table ) is now being circu-

apparently said Mr Dutton was “ gul-

He was angry , and he wanted to

“ That ’ s it . So , they ’ ve gone back

Watch . But surely even ChatGPT

lated for party political purposes

lible and the worst health minister

get to the truth .

and rewritten history .

does not experience that many

with little context , it is important to

in history ”?

For context , we ran the poll over

“ And they keep saying , ‘ Oh , Peter

hallucinations ?

be fair to Mr Dutton and stress the

That was Dr Donald Rose , a GP in

a period of about 24 hours , a few

Dutton has been voted the worst

So take a deep breath , and just for

following points .

Tasmania .

weeks after Mr Dutton was moved

health minister in history . The worst ?

the record , we will go through them .

Obviously , the results were

Strictly speaking , as Mr Price

to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection following his disastrous flirtation with GP co-payments .

Evidently , the poll did not go Mr Dutton ’ s way , but a decade on , it

‘ It ’ s [ from ] something called Doctors ’ Magazine , and it ’ s got 1100 readers only , and this is back in 2013 .’

never going to end up in a Cochrane review , and we never presented them as such .

As a web poll , it was subject to selection bias , but there was also recency bias .

now acknowledges , he did not say Mr Dutton was the worst health minister .

This is what he said : “ Dutton will be remembered as the dullest , least innovative and most gullible

has now become weaponised as the

When we ran it , Mr Dutton had

for swallowing the reforms from his

favoured meme of the current gov-

This one doctor has said he was

Firstly , the publication is called

been health minister for little over

think tank .

ernment , which has been posting

pleased he had been demoted from

Australian Doctor , not Doctors ’

a year .

“ Although I am glad he has been

numerous videos about the results

health minister .”

Magazine .

But the list of his predecessors

demoted , it would have been good if

through TikTok and Instagram and

The Sky News host , Sharri Mark-

Our online readership is around

went back 30 years to the days of

he was still around to take respon-

other social media .

son , responded : “ It ’ s all just fiction !”

33,000 doctors a month , but at

Neal Blewett , who became health

sibility for the current chaos he has

Mr Price — a well-known broad-

For about five days before it was

the time of the poll , it was 20,000 ,

minister in 1983 . It is probably good

caused .”

caster with a 30-year history in jour-

pulled , there was a video on the Sky

mainly GPs .

to assume that some doctors who

As the Media Watch program on

nalism , according to his Wikipedia

News website with the title Rewrit-

The poll ( and there definitely was

responded had only a dim memory

the affair stated last week with the

page — continued as follows :

ten history : Peter Dutton ’ s history as

a poll ; it was no fiction ) was run in

of his achievements .

election about to be called , you can

“ It ’ s [ from ] something called Doc-

health minister scrutinised by ‘ one ’

2015 , not 2013 as Mr Price said .

The other issue , in terms of

expect more of this spin cycle in the

tors ’ Magazine ,” he said inaccurately .

doctor .

The 1100 number he referred to

who is the ‘ worst ’ health minis-

weeks ahead .

“ And it ’ s got 1100 readers only ,

We are not sure where Mr Price

was not the AusDoc readership but

ter , is that Mr Dutton had succes-

and this is back in 2013 ,” The Guardian reported .

sourced his information . He issued a correction , well , to be accurate

actually the number of doctors ( 1077 to be precise ) who had voted in the

sors and they were not included in the poll for reasons to do with the

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