Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Health does not want to hear or understand the concerns of constituents. I look forward to tomorrow when the member for Newcastle, the member for Hunter, the member for Shortland and the member for Charlton will all go to the media in the Hunter and say, 'I proudly supported taking away access to the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. I was proud to stand up and vote to make sure it was got rid of.' Through the whole spectrum of the Hunter we have a high number of people on concession cards, people who normally do not have access to public dental hospitals. People in rural and regional areas who do not have access to public dental hospitals were able to be referred by their GP to their local dentist to get work done. This minister is now saying, 'Go on the back end of the queue. Drive yourself from Forster to the dental hospital in Sydney and sit there and wait.' Minister, this is totally unacceptable and cannot be supported.

The other thing the Labor Party keeps pushing is that the Howard government abolished the Commonwealth Dental Scheme. Well, that scheme was set up for four years, and it was the previous Labor government that made no allowance for it in the forward estimates. What we get from this government is rhetoric and very little action. What concerns me most about their proposal, as I said in my speech yesterday, is that this package is unfunded. I want people to clearly understand that they are abolishing this scheme to put the money in the bank to offset the $120 billion black hole. Those who are suffering from a chronic dental condition are now personally going to pay with their health for the financial mismanagement of this government because they are ripping this scheme down.

I have just been informed that the member for Kennedy will not be supporting the government on this, and for that I commend him. Obviously the member for Kennedy has been out and about among his community and understands the importance of this. He and I, like the majority of members in this place, represent rural and regional electorates and we do not have a public dental health hospital in our community. That means long distances to travel and those in regional areas incurring further cost to get down to the public dental hospitals in the capital cities.

This is poorly designed. All the minister is trying to do is rip money out of the system to prop up a failed financial package—and it is the people of Australia and, in particular, my constituents in Paterson who are going to suffer. Minister, you failed in your response in an article today in the Maitland Mercury. It was an appalling response. On one hand you said you care for people who suffer from these conditions and then you accused them of being millionaires who do not deserve the treatment. I say that is wrong.

I seek leave to table two documents. The first is page 1 of yesterday's Maitland Mercury, which contains an article that highlights the concerns of my constituents in relation to the abolition of the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. The second is page 4 of today's Maitland Mercury, which contains the minister's responses to that article.

Leave not granted.

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