Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. I enjoyed visiting him in his electorate and meeting with CCAS, the Chinese community model of positive ageing. It was most impressive. Everyone is touched by cancer. The Institute of Health and Welfare's report released yesterday indicates that, while we are doing better in prevention and treatment, we are actually seeing more and more diagnosis, which means it is all the more important that this government take a sensible, positive, investment approach to health across the board, with a focus on cancer, which we are. It is important that we build a healthier Medicare. We acknowledge that budget repair in the omnibus bill, as passed yesterday, is critical in doing that.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, as a previous health minister, joined with the Leader of the Opposition during the campaign in the fraudulent misrepresentation of Medicare. Interestingly, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition probably does not take quite the same approach to budget repair as some of the economic hardheads in her party, because she desperately hung onto a measure that makes absolutely no sense in the context of public health. And she has highlighted—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Thank you—the kids dental measure. Under the child dental benefits scheme that the member for Sydney—

Opposition members interjecting—

Well, it was her scheme. She really wanted to hang onto it. She did not want to make any changes and she could not be persuaded—

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

and she says she is proud of it. The problem is that it is not a public dental scheme. It is a scheme where if you have an income of $178,000 and two children you could access this public dental scheme. The people that we care about, the people who should be the targets of a truly public dental scheme, are the eight in nine children who do not see a dentist, the children whose parents unfortunately won't take them to a private dentist to be treated under the member for Sydney's scheme, the children who have never seen a toothbrush, let alone a dentist, the children who would benefit from sound, solid public infrastructure in dental. That is what this government has provided and will continue to promote—a real public scheme that reaches those who would not make it to a private dentist. Shame on the member for Sydney, but also shame—unfortunately, I have to mention it again—on the member for Ballarat in the context of cancer screening, because we are still waiting for the cancer screening registry to come back to the parliament.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

See this speech in context