Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by my neighbour the member for Ryan. As the member for Ryan well knows, Medicare is actually a great Labor accomplishment, and I will always defend and promote it and acknowledge the radical thinking of Whitlam a half-century ago and then the pragmatic efforts of Hawke to make this scheme a reality for all Australians now. The government recognises that many in our communities face significant barriers to accessing affordable dental services, but, as a sensible government, we have to make sure we get good policy right, and it must be economically sustainable. For some reason, the member for Ryan forgot to cost the policies she just spoke about, but I'm sure the member for Brisbane will go into the costing details when he speaks. Obviously, if slogans, sound bites and memes were all it took to implement effective policies, our country would have no problems left to solve.

The Albanese government has committed to the long-term goal of incorporating dental health services into Medicare. Health Minister Butler and the state and territory health ministers have all prioritised dental health reform and finding reform options. While we've committed to expanding Medicare to dental health services, we are proactively investing in critical areas to support dental reform today. As part of last year's budget, the Albanese Labor government announced $1.7 million for a dental services costing study to determine an efficient price for public dental services. The results of this study will inform the future funding model. We also announced $400,000 for a new dental national minimum data set to collect nationally consistent activity and waiting times data. We have also contributed $215.6 million to assist states and territories to deliver dental health services for those experiencing crisis—and I've seen it at the QEII hospital in my electorate.

Federal Labor governments always do the grunt work of delivering meaningful change for the Australian people. I've no doubt that, when we do expand Medicare to dental services, the Greens political party will try to claim credit for the work of Labor. I saw them try to co-opt Whitlam and Hawke to their brand as soon as they died. I remember that. It was disgraceful. This is what the Greens political party do nowadays. They are the party of passing off. Some might call it stealing or plagiarism. For example, Labor commissioned the Universities Accord report back in November of 2022 as part of our commitment to higher education reform. Again, the Greens political party jumped on the Labor bandwagon and claimed our homework as their own.

This motion from the member for Ryan—which isn't that important, obviously, because she left the chamber after introducing it—also references mental health services. Sadly, the issues facing the mental health sector do reflect the broader issues in our under-pressure health system, a system that Labor is working to repair, to address. Our recent budget allocated $361 million over the next four years to expand the range of free mental health services, ensuring that Australians who need help get help. The government is providing free mental health services, including psychiatry, psychology and GPs—an important frontline service—through a series of walk-in Medicare mental health centres and bulk-billing support across the country. We have also invested in Primary Health Networks and general practices to fund mental health nurses and other allied health professionals who can provide more specialised care for patients with complex needs.

Labor has a strong record when it comes to dental and mental health services. I particularly note our Strengthening Medicare reforms, which have seen billions of dollars in new investment, and bulk-billing rates rising, after years of neglect. Our budget committed to the rollout of 58 Medicare urgent care clinics in 2023, to relieve pressure on the health system, and this year we've committed to another 29, right across Australia. We've tripled the bulk-billing incentive. We've frozen the cost of PBS medicines, ensuring that every senior will pay, at most, $7.70 for the medicines they need.

In politics, there are show ponies and there are work horses. While Labor gets on with the job of delivering progressive and significant change for the Australian people, the show ponies will run around shouting out their slogans. They'll blockade electoral offices, causing havoc to NDIS people that live in my electorate. They'll chant their slogans out the front of my office. But one-trick ponies are no fun to ride at all. I'll always back the Labor work horses when it comes to looking after the Australian people and our healthcare system.

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