Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

One of the benefits of having young children is that you get to watch lots of Thomas the Tank Engine. Whilst I would not accuse the Minister for Health and Ageing of being the Fat Controller, she does sound like Miss Jenny uttering the words of the Fat Controller about ‘confusion and delay’. On the one hand, the minister said that it is a great idea to have a review—she is not afraid to have a review of any program—but, on the other hand, the minister criticised us for insisting in the Senate on having a review. On the one hand, the minister says that there is a dental waiting list crisis but, on the other hand, the minister and her colleagues in the Senate opposed our revocation of the proposed regulation by the government to abolish Medicare dental. On the one hand, the minister says that our Medicare dental program did not provide services for people in South Australia over four years, particularly young people in South Australia, but, on the other hand, it is the law in South Australia for the state Labor government to provide dental services for students and, if they are not receiving any dental services, to ring up the Premier of South Australia and ask him why he is not doing his job. On the one hand, the minister says that only 13,000 services have been provided, yet in Senate estimates the minister’s own department says 300,000 services have been provided in five months. The words ‘confusion and delay’, uttered by the Fat Controller in Thomas the Tank Engine, could find no better home than in the words of the Miss Jenny equivalent, the Minister for Health and Ageing, because the contradictions are rich.

We believe there are significant problems with the Teen Dental Plan put forward by the government. In providing a rebate of up to $150, the government’s own costings state that the analysis in X-rays will probably cost $240, so there is a $90-shortfall, even taking into account the fact that it is ‘up to $150’ that the government is proposing to give people who are in receipt of family tax benefit part A. There is, therefore, going to be a gap. The combined dental initiatives of the Labor government exceed the total cost of the continuation of Medicare dental, as estimated by the Labor government.

The coalition believes that dental services for chronically ill people should be available through Medicare. To quote the member for New England—and I hope he will understand me delivering this quote in a more sanitised version—you have Medicare to remove a boil in an inappropriate part of your anatomy but you do not get Medicare to remove a boil in your mouth. The truth of the matter is that we, the coalition, introduced dental services on Medicare and the Labor Party in government tried to remove them. The fact that you have received more than 300,000 services, with a value of up to $4,250 over a two-year period, as a result of the Howard government initiatives, is a great thing, and we stand by that. Let it be forever marked on the headstone of the Labor Party’s attitude towards dental care that the Labor Party tried to take dental care for chronically ill people off Medicare and that it was only the coalition that was able to stop them. We make no apologies for that whatsoever.

Finally, I would just say in relation to this specific amendment—

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