Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, can you inform the parliament why the government’s chronic disease dental program has, over the past three years, assisted only 14 preschoolers across the entire country and only one child under five in Queensland? Prime Minister, why do you prefer this hopeless program, which helps only a handful of children rather than assisting the up to 650,000 people languishing on the waiting lists and the up to one million Australians who could benefit from Labor’s plan?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the minister, I remind the member for Gellibrand that she should not use the word ‘you’ in a question.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can inform the member for Gellibrand that there were some flaws in the scheme as it was originally put forward; that is why we have completely restructured it. The problem with the scheme as it was originally put into place was that it only funded consultations. The scheme as it has been revised will fund no fewer than 450 separate dental procedures. The difference between our scheme and Labor’s scheme is that our scheme covers everything; Labor’s scheme only covers consultations.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I was wondering if you could ask the minister to table the changed eligibility rules that he seems to believe exist.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the member for Gellibrand wishes to raise another question, she will do so at the appropriate time.

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister update the House on how the government is boosting dental services through Medicare?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a lot of villages looking for idiots. Is the minister aware of any alternative policy responses, and what is the government’s response to those?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Moreton for his question and I certainly appreciate his concerns about the dental clinic at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in his electorate. That dental clinic was all but shut when the Leader of the Opposition was the Director-General of the Cabinet Office in Queensland. I am confident that the member for Moreton’s concerns are not shared by the Labor candidate in Moreton, a former union official who is almost certain to be, as the Leader of the Opposition is, a patsy for the ACTU and a patsy for the state Premier.

Let me inform the House, for those members who are not aware of it, that legislation is currently going through this parliament to give people with serious dental problems up to $4,250 worth of Medicare funded dental treatment, in a $385 million dental plan that will cover some 450 specific dental items. This is the best news that people with dental problems have had in many a long year, yet I regret to say that the member for Gellibrand got up in this House last night and said that Labor would oppose it. This is a $385 million plan which will start in just a few weeks and Labor want to stop it. Labor want to stop $385 million of dental treatment starting almost immediately.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Roxon interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gellibrand!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, the member for Gellibrand, along with the Leader of the Opposition, launched what she said is Labor’s dental policy, but it was not today’s dental policy. What she actually did was relaunch the Keating dental scheme of the mid-1990s, which helped state governments much more than it helped dental patients.

This government has a $385 million plan; Labor have just a $290 million plan. Every dollar of this government’s plan will be spent on services; much of Labor’s money will be spent on state public servants. The government’s scheme covers some 450 separate dental items and Labor’s scheme will cover just one thing—consultations.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One child in Queensland!

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gellibrand is warned!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In fact, Labor has been telling us for the last three years that any scheme that just covers consultations does not work, and they have not even learnt from their own critique. In fact, the member for Gellibrand went so far as to mislead the House last night. I do not say she did it deliberately but she certainly misled the House, because she said that by abolishing this scheme she would part fund Labor’s dental scheme. Well, $385 million more than funds $290 million, and I want to know: where is the missing $100 million that Labor obviously wants to rip out of dental services?

The government’s proposal has been on the table since May. You would think Labor would have tried to trump the government’s proposal. Any serious opposition does not come in with a smaller scheme; it comes in with a bigger scheme, but the proposal announced today involves less money and fewer services and lasts for a shorter time. I make this prediction very confidently: Labor’s decision to vote against $385 million worth of new dental funding will come to be seen as just as silly as the former Leader of the Opposition’s decision to vote against tax cuts. Voting against dental treatments is as silly, as perverse and as politically counterproductive as voting against tax cuts. That is what Labor are doing. They are voting against more dental services.

The Leader of the Opposition cannot blame the member for Gellibrand for the mess he has got himself into. He knows just how hopeless the states are in this area. He thinks the states are so hopeless that they cannot even be trusted to run public hospitals properly. He wants to rip the public hospitals off the states, but somehow he is going to give them more money to further mismanage state public dental schemes. The Leader of the Opposition, of all people, ought to know that you can do a lot better than the Keating scheme. In 1995, when he was the director-general of the cabinet office and the Keating scheme had been in place for two years, public dental waiting lists in Queensland were still three years long and there were press reports of pensioners on the Gold Coast having to do their own teeth extractions with pliers. That is what they were doing when he was the director-general in Queensland and the Keating scheme was in place. The fact that he wants to put in place today something that he knew was gravely flawed then shows just what a fake and a phoney this Leader of the Opposition is.

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table a report from the Sydney Morning Herald in February 2005 where the minister supports the Keating government’s dental plan.

Leave granted.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister and refers to his reply to my earlier question where he said that dental health has been the responsibility of the states since time immemorial. Has the Prime Minister recently read the Constitution, which states in section 51:

51. The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:—

              …              …              …

(xxiiiA)

The provision of maternity allowances, widows’ pensions, child endowment, unemployemnt, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services ...

Has the Prime Minister now suspended the Constitution, or on what basis does the Prime Minister now claim that since time immemorial the states have had exclusive responsibility for dental? When will the Prime Minister cease engaging in the blame game with the states? When will the Prime Minister put forward a practical—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right! The Leader of the Opposition will resume  his seat.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Pyne interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Ageing will remove himself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Sturt then left the chamber.

The Leader of the Opposition will repeat the last part of his question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, Mr Speaker. Why has the Prime Minister argued that the states have had responsibility for dental since time immemorial when the Constitution says the reverse? Prime Minister, why are you only interested in playing the blame game with the states, rather than putting forward a practical plan to reduce dental waiting lists for 650,000 Australians now on those lists?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I say in reply to the Leader of the Opposition that, whatever delusions of grandeur he may have, prime ministers, or indeed putative prime ministers, cannot suspend the Constitution of this country. Nothing in the reading of a section from the Constitution alters the fact that, to borrow my phrase, for time immemorial the states have provided for public dental treatment. And it was because there were long waiting lists at state dental hospitals that the Keating government introduced a one-off plan. When we inherited a parlous fiscal position in 1996 we took advice. We found that those waiting lists had been reduced and the program, having fulfilled its goals, was therefore terminated.

I simply ask: why is the Leader of the Opposition stealing $100 million from a dental program designed to help the elderly, the sick and the chronically ill in this country? Our program is worth $384 million. It will assist 200,000 people. It was opposed in the parliament last night. The shadow minister made it very clear in her speech that the Labor Party would use the $384 million to fund their own plan, and their own plan is only going to cost $290 million. I simply ask: where is the $100 million? How can it be good public policy to take that $100 million from a dental program that is due to start in a few weeks time and replace it with an inferior program that merely gives $290 million to the states? I do not think the quality of public health administration in the states warrants them getting $290 million out of a Commonwealth program worth $384 million. No government in this country is perfect but, when it comes to public health, the most imperfect governments of all are state Labor governments. I would not give them another $290 million. I would keep the $384 million in the Abbott program, which is going through the parliament at the present time, which will benefit 200,000 Australians.

I advise the Leader of the Opposition to put away the Constitution and to exercise a bit of common sense. I was fascinated by the lecture I received from Rudd J on the meaning of the Constitution. The truth is that, for time immemorial, states have been looking after public dental clinics. And for time immemorial those state Labor governments have been failing in their responsibilities. Our program will do something practical about it and ought to be supported—it ought not be short-changed.

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

Mr Georganas interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Hindmarsh is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party should be ashamed of itself for taking $100 million away from the dental care needs of older Australians.