Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I say at the outset how delighted I am that we are actually debating dental care. I say that because this is a very important issue for pensioners, for children and for people on low incomes, who have been struggling with this for many, many years. It is great to hear the opposition talking about dental care, because I can recall the times that they spoke about dental care when they were in government. I recall two times. The first was in 1996, when the first act of the Howard government was to get rid of the Commonwealth Dental Scheme. They spoke about it then. The second time it was ever raised was at a minute to midnight before the 2007 election, when they cobbled together a botched up policy for the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.

In the period in between, it was raised on a number of occasions. Many of us on this side campaigned on it. I did, very strongly, in my 2004 campaign and in 2007 and 2010. I constantly saw constituents of mine who had been waiting for years to get dentures, people who were on a pension, who were on low incomes, people waiting to get their teeth fixed, waiting for fillings—a whole range of things. Every single time it was raised either as a question in question time or a private member's motion or as a debate on radio or in the media, the answer always came back exactly the same, and that was: 'It has nothing to do with the Commonwealth government.' Look up Hansard. I urge people to look up the Hansards, look at the questions and look at the debates, and you will see the same answer over and over: 'It has nothing to do with the Commonwealth government. Go to your state Labor mates and get it fixed.' Those are the responses that we were getting.

So I am really pleased—I am delighted—that the opposition is actually talking about dental care, because we have a plan in place that will look after low-income earners, pensioners, children and also people with chronic diseases.

Dr Southcott interjecting—

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