Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak in the Australian parliament today as the federal member for Ryan—a wonderful electorate in the western suburbs which I very proudly have represented from November 2001 and will continue to represent very strongly here in the House of Representatives. I am delighted to be able to speak on this motion on dental health because it really does give me an opportunity to reflect for those who might be listening—and I see that there are some young Australians visiting the parliament and I welcome them to their national parliament—on how grossly incompetent and absolutely neglectful the state and territory governments of this country are in terms of their responsibilities.

The state and territory governments of this country are up to their necks in scandal and corruption. It is little wonder that they are not able to focus on the quality of service delivery in a whole host of areas—notably, of course, in the service delivery of public dental health care. This is a responsibility of the state and territory governments. Quite frankly, members opposite, from the Labor Party, are playing the blame game, and they are shirking their responsibilities. I am appalled that so many Australians—in particular, I am quite concerned that many elderly Australians and many Australians on lower incomes—are having to wait ridiculously long periods of time to access dental care. It really is not good enough for a country of our wealth and prosperity. But let us make no mistake about who actually is to blame in this context. It is not about blame of itself; it is about the allocation of responsibility. We live in a federation, and the area of public dental health care has been allocated to the states and territories.

We do not want any of those opposite trying to dodge the reality, so let me put a few things straight on the record. The first thing I want to say in the parliament and to the constituents of Ryan who might end up reading my words here in Hansard is that the Commonwealth dental health scheme that they referred to was in operation for only three years—three short years—during the time of the previous Labor government. Before and after those three years, funding was the responsibility of the state governments. Why was the scheme introduced? It was introduced as a temporary measure. It was a measure to address the terribly long queues in the state system—and that of itself is an acknowledgement that the state governments had this responsibility, a very important responsibility. To redress the terribly long queues in the state health system, the federal government of the time took it upon itself to make a contribution to dental health care. The scheme existed between 1994 and 1996. It was a one-off attempt to help the states with their appalling backlog.

As I said, all Australians will know that we live in a federation. They might not like it, but at the end of the day that is the reality. We live in a federation that involves the division of responsibilities. The national government has responsibility for things like defence, immigration, customs and, of course, foreign affairs. These are within the remit of the national parliament. On the other hand, the states have a mandate to look after local roads, local schools, local hospitals and local courts. It is this division of government responsibility that defines our federal structure. For it to work, both the federal government and the state governments must keep their end of the deal.

Unfortunately we are seeing, right across this country, in every state, that the Labor governments of those states are simply not keeping their end of the deal. Quite frankly, I do not believe that they have the abilities or the talents to govern, and I say this across the board. So it is little wonder that the states are continuing to expect the federal government to step in and clean up their incompetence. We all know that the states are swimming in GST that this government implemented as part of the sweeping taxation reforms in the late 1990s. Queensland alone is swimming in $8 billion of GST. Every single dollar of revenue that has arisen in the marketplace goes to the state governments. As I said, there is $8 billion of GST for Queensland alone. I recollect, I think, that the Premier of Queensland was the first Premier to sign on to this treasure of cash coming his way. He could not sign fast enough, because he knew that this was cash for him to spend on services in his state. Unfortunately, he is not meeting his responsibilities. (Time expired)

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