Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would have thought that National Party members in particular from your side of this House would be up here speaking about this axing of the voluntary dental graduate program because those areas that are likely to benefit most from it are those areas that are further out from the cities, where they have trouble attracting people to work as dentists. This gives those dental graduates the opportunity to improve their skills enormously and it provides services to those areas that really lack dental health services.

That was only part of what Labor did when they were in power. We moved from the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, which was very poorly targeted—and was one that I am sure the minister will not reintroduce—to a much better and fairer system, where those people who actually needed dental treatment could access it. A partnership agreement was reached—an interim partnership agreement came into being in the middle of last year, and the full-blown partnership comes in later this year.

This allowed those people who could not afford to attend a dentist to actually visit a dentist to get the treatment that they needed—those people who had need of a dental scheme, rather than people who were millionaires and who really should have private health insurance to access dental health care. The partnership agreement will provide $345.9 million over three years to address public dental help waiting lists, something that I am sure those on the other side would want to see happen. I know that when we looked at this issue in the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, all members were committed to improving dental health for everybody.

It is $1.3 billion over four years—that was the interim amount that I just gave you—$2.7 billion over six years for Grow Up Smiling, and $225 million over four years for the flexible grants program that will put in place infrastructure in outer metropolitan areas. Labor was committed to dental health reform for all students while this government— (Time expired)

See this speech in context