Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Smith; I can. There are challenges, including the considerable workforce challenges that we inherited and that we are dealing with. One of the biggest challenges we're dealing with now is the legacy of terminating measures—unfunded measures in the Health and Aged Care portfolio—left to us by the coalition. We see what must have happened when the former health and aged-care ministers went to ERC. They must have gone to ERC and said, 'We need some extra money for these things,' and the ERC must have said to them, 'Well, you can have it for one year, maybe two years, and then it's going to end.' That's what we're dealing with now: hundreds of measures that terminate, that just end. At 30 June—no more money. 'Sorry, adult dental program. We know that adults still have teeth and might still need dentists' services after 30 June, but we're not going to fund it.' It's a terminating measure. Well, we're dealing with that. We're cleaning up your mess.