Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The critical issue here is that, if you are dealing with the health needs of senior Australians, your first responsibility is to make sure you get a properly funded public hospital system. Your second responsibility is to ensure that you re-establish the Commonwealth Dental Health Program—something which those opposite abolished a decade ago. We have done that. We have done it in nine months. We are proud of our record on this and we are proud of the fact that we intend to deliver this advantage to middle-income earners through the action we propose in the Senate. Again I challenge those opposite. On the day after we have had one modest interest rate cut, which affects so many working families across Australia, they are contemplating opposing a measure in the Senate which will, for income earners of the type I described before, lead to a further $1,200 a year hike. I would say to those opposite that, if they are concerned about families under financial pressure, they should act in the Senate and act appropriately in defence of the interests of those working families under financial pressure.

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