Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike the opposition, we have entered into a COAG agreement. We will provide funds and money to hospitals to cut waiting lists to help those hospital systems which they neglected over the last 10 or 11 years. It is rich for the senator to come into this chamber and complain about our action. He should take the blame for his own inaction during the whole 11-year period when those opposite had control of the health system. They did not enter into meaningful talks under the COAG agreement to provide health funding. We needed to be able to slash waiting lists then. What the opposition are now complaining about is our action to deal with the crisis that they have left us with in some of those acute areas. When you look at their failures against our achievements, you see 650,000 on the public dental waiting list against our Teen Dental Plan. (Time expired)