Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I regret to inform him that, despite $14 billion worth of Commonwealth funding under the health care agreements and despite almost $2 billion in GST windfall revenue over the last three years, the New South Wales government is still short-changing patients in that state. To give one example: the member for Gellibrand keeps saying that there is a dental crisis. She says that is why we need ‘Dentistry Gold’, at the cost of $4.7 billion every year. Do not accept what Labor says; watch what Labor does. The New South Wales budget allocated just $4 million more for public dentistry, even though people with no teeth wait up to 2½ years and people in severe pain wait up to three weeks for treatment at the Westmead dental hospital.

Above all, the people of northern New South Wales know that you cannot trust Labor with health care. In June 2004, on the strength of an $8 million commitment from the Howard government, the New South Wales Labor government promised a new cancer centre for Lismore Base Hospital. The New South Wales government promised that construction would start by the middle of this year. Now the New South Wales Labor government will not start construction until 2010 at the earliest, and the New South Wales budget delivered a paltry $145,000 for planning, not the $20 million or more that this centre will need.

If the Leader of the Opposition can call a national executive meeting to expel Joe McDonald, why can’t he call a Premier to help cancer patients? If the Leader of the Opposition can make 11 phone calls to the editor of the Australian to support a lie, why can’t he make a single phone call to Morris Iemma to expedite the construction of this cancer centre? If the Leader of the Opposition can phone-stalk editors to kill stories, using language that would make Dean Mighell blush, why can’t he phone-stalk a few premiers to support health services? This guy sends more text messages than Shane Warne. I reckon the editor of the Australian is entitled to ask to go on a do not call register to protect himself from harassment from the Leader of the Opposition.

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