Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the honourable member for New England has pointed out—I had not thought about it—there are no teeth in the policy. It does not bite enough, in my view. But seriously, 600,000 of our fellow Australians were able to take advantage of the previous program, which Labor is committed to reintroducing. Whilst I support the changes to the Medicare levy, I also welcome the federal government crossing over, for the first time, to recognise it has some responsibility for dental health. But I want to point out that we have a very long way to go in relation to that.

One of the real difficulties faced by a lot of my constituents, who are going to perhaps benefit from the measures I have outlined, is that they are paying mortgages. They are feeling the pinch. I remind the House that, at the last election, the promise was made that interest rates would be kept low—

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