Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let us look at the state of our trained dentists. At the moment, the average age of dentists is over 50. Within the next four years we will see a shortfall of about 1,500 dental care providers and yet we are graduating only 250 dental students a year. We would need to increase that by about 120 a year to meet demand, so in the years to come access to dental services will become even more difficult. After 10 years of the Howard government, there are 500,000 people on waiting lists for dental care. The previous Labor government spent $100 million a year on a scheme, and during that time 1.5 million Australians accessed the scheme. Yet, as one of its first acts, this federal government junked it and now blames everybody else for the decision it made.

Studies by the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council show that children from poor groups have twice as many rotten teeth as those from wealthy groups—and what do we get from the government? We get pure politics. Twenty per cent of the population—the poorest—have 80 per cent of the disease, and we get more politics from the federal government. There is no responsibility, just blame and politics. (Time expired)

See this speech in context