Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I acknowledge your new position here in this House. There are people in this place that one tends to model themselves on and there are good men and women in this House. You have displayed statesmanlike qualities, which I have tried to emulate, and I praise you. For your contribution and ongoing contribution to the House, due recognition has been bestowed upon you with your recent election as Deputy Speaker. I acknowledge that as a position well fitted.

I rise to speak on the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2012 that is currently before the House. The bill makes amendments to the Dental Benefits Act 2008, changes that do not assist people who are in need of dental services right now or those undergoing current treatment plans. This change is designed to give this Labor government its own authored dental scheme. We the coalition would not mind so much if the bill actually improved the scheme that the coalition, under Tony Abbott as the then health minister, presented to the Australian people and that has been delivering dental services ever since.

The member for Banks, the previous speaker, referred in his speech to those people who could least afford dental care. One of the flaws in the bill that is currently before the House is that it punishes the very people he was claiming to represent. This bill in its entirety affects those people who can least afford it. It creates a gap until the proposed government scheme would come in. It leaves a void. No speakers from the other side have mentioned this in their speeches. I think they are not mentioning it because it must be evident that their electorate will be affected by this oversight. This government in its explicit wisdom has chosen to delay the start of the program till 1 January 2014 for children and 1 July for adults but closed the current program on 30 November this year. That is quite a gap, as will be the gaps in the mouths of patients requiring dental treatment right now.

Up until these start dates it will be 13 months for children and 19 months for adults. That is inexcusable in this country when the Treasurer boasts on the floor of this parliament about how wealthy we are, how great the country is fiscally and what strength we have. Dental care will be taken away from a class of people in our community for up to 19 months, depending on their age demographic. The Australian people and the people of Wright, whom I represent, have no choice but to suffer yet again because of this government's hasty policy tactics. These hasty tactics include rushing this bill through the parliament without providing the appropriate details. This does nothing to help this parliament to put into action in this country clean and healthy policies. It only proves this government's contempt of the Australian people.

It is somewhat ironic that we are looking at a health issue and yet the government cannot even exercise healthy methods of policy development. We have a government with such contempt that they have decided it is good policy to close on 30 November this year the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, which has provided some 20 million services since 2007. No new patients have been able to access services after 7 September, leaving a 13-month gap in the availability of services—13 months of being left in the dark; 13 months of Nurofen, cold packs and whatever other remedies patients can find to soothe their abscesses, broken teeth and various other dental ailments that children suffer.

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