John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I know. It is a problem, isn’t it? For the member for Braddon to say that we did nothing on this is ridiculous. There were 300,000 services. Of course, it is not 300,000 people, but people who needed genuine work were able to get it done. As I said earlier, people in my electorate are coming to me wanting to know why it is, when they have done all that work, that suddenly they have been cut dead on a program which was obviously so necessary, simply going on the number of people who have taken advantage of it. I think it is shocking that that program is being cut. If the government want to bring in a new one, I think they should fund it rather than throw people half the cost of a dental check-up and then give them nothing to follow it up afterwards. Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, regional health is a huge issue—as you, I and the member for Kalgoorlie are well aware—and we will pursue it and do our level best to keep the government on their toes on it.

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