Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Blair for his question. The member understands what it means to have a strong and vibrant health system. In his electorate recently, we have just committed $21 million for a new cancer centre in Springfield. I was up there in Blair recently with the member for Blair and the member for Oxley, not just looking at the site of the new Springfield cancer centre but also meeting with the West Moreton-Oxley Medicare Local that are delivering much better primary health care services in the areas represented by the member for Oxley and the member for Blair—better allied health, better extended hours GP services and better mental health, all on the ground up there.

All over Australia families like those families in Blair and in Oxley can see that our agenda is making real differences to their lives—investing and improving, in contrast with the slashing of services that we are seeing from state governments. We are graduating more doctors and more nurses—a thousand extra nurses a year, and 6,000 extra doctors over a decade—in contrast to the slashing of GP training places and the shortages that were left by the Leader of the Opposition when he was health minister. There are record bulk-billing rates versus record low bulk-billing rates. In contrast to our $20 billion investment into hospitals, $1 billion was cut by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the health minister.

The contrast is a stark one. I know that it upsets those opposite to have these issues raised. The dental scheme that we have introduced into the parliament just recently includes $4.1 billion to be spent on better dental care for 3.4 million Australian children, better investment in the dental care of adults, and about $1.5 billion extra for public dental care. Those opposite are saying, 'Where does it come from?' Yes, we will close the chronic disease dental scheme, because it is a rorted scheme. It is a scheme that was supposed to cost $90 million a year that was costing $80 million a month. It is a rorted scheme.

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