As Shadow Minister for Health, Thwaites campaigned against the Kennett Government’s cuts to health and the privatisation of ambulance services. He used Freedom of Information documents to highlight long delays in hospital emergency departments and health budget cuts. (“Austin in patient crisis, says Labor”, The Age, 3 October 1996.) Thwaites also highlighted concerns about privatisation of ambulance dispatching to a private company, Intergraph, which the Auditor General found “at best involved serious mismanagement or, at worst, constituted corrupt activity”.  (“State backs Intergraph reports bid”, The Age, 3 September 1999). The Intergraph affair and concerns about hospital privatisation and ambulance services were major issues in the 1999 state election. (“Selloffs the big difference” The Age 9 September 1999. “Ambulance scandal threatens Kennett” The Age 28 September 1999).