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

I beg your pardon. The Minister for Health and Ageing also has his facts wrong. He said in an interview two weeks ago that ‘public dental services have always been a state responsibility’. But of course that is not true. We know, for example, that there was a Commonwealth dental program which this Prime Minister scrapped when he was elected. But quite apart from that, and perhaps the minister at the table might be surprised to hear it, the health minister is also unaware of very basic facts about his portfolio. For example, there is a provision in the Constitution—section 51(xxiiiA), if the minister would like to look it up—which makes it abundantly clear that the Commonwealth does have the responsibility and power to act in this area. No-one in this chamber should for a minute think that I do not believe the states share some of this responsibility. We are not talking about whether the states have any responsibility; we are talking about whether the Commonwealth plays any role in fixing what is a national problem.

For the government to pretend that they have no national responsibility on this issue, that they somehow do not have the power and that it has never been an issue for them, is absolutely ridiculous. Not only that, but the health minister, in his desperation to make the point that it is the states’ fault, also managed to mislead parliament, claiming during question time that state funding of dental services had fallen from $374 million to $327 million per year. In fact, the most recent data—easily available to anyone who bothered to look for it—showed that state government expenditure has actually increased to $503 million per annum. The state governments had to step up their investment after the Commonwealth deserted them in this field. But without Commonwealth investment it is ordinary Australians who lose. We can argue across the table as much as we want in this place about what the states should do and what the Commonwealth should do, but the bottom line is that the Commonwealth is not contributing any money to try to fix what is a national problem. Every person around this chamber, including the two members sitting opposite, know that there are people in their electorates who cannot get the dental care that they need. It must be embarrassing to be in the government ranks and saying: ‘We don’t have anything to do with fixing it. We are not prepared to even contribute in any way that might make a difference to those waiting lists or to the access that working families have to the dental care that they need.’ So desperate, it seems, is the minister to sheet home the blame for the national dental crisis to the states that he is prepared to use outdated, incorrect figures to buttress his case. He is not going to get away with that sort of pretence. He cannot do that. He can say that the states share some responsibility, he can put pressure on them to do more, but when the Commonwealth entirely washes its hands of this issue it is pretty hard to take it seriously.

Dental care is an important aspect of overall health. Poor dental care causes pain, it causes embarrassment and it costs our health system millions of dollars through lost opportunities to catch small problems before they become big problems. The government have simply washed their hands of this issue. They cut $100 million a year from dental care and, in a spectacular act of dubious logic, have managed to convince themselves that the awful state of dental health in this country is nothing to do with them. They have not convinced us and they have not convinced Australian working families.

The Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition have offered solutions. The Leader of the Opposition has committed to making dental care more accessible to low-income families. Labor is determined to help solve this problem, but the government are intent only on washing their hands of it. This is in the face of a growing number of Liberal backbenchers, government backbenchers, calling for their own government to act. Members know what is happening on the ground. They know that their government is failing people who need this dental care. We have now seen a range of members who sat on the blame game committee that issued a report recommending the Commonwealth re-establish a Commonwealth dental scheme. That was signed off on unanimously, with the majority of that committee being government members. Still we see nothing from the Prime Minister.

We have seen in the media calls from other backbenchers to take some action in this area. There are a number of ways that the Commonwealth could help solve this problem, but it is determined to do nothing. For the government to ignore this issue and to pretend that it is entirely and solely a responsibility of the states is irresponsible. This is costing us not just in health dollars but also in damage in particular to children whose teeth could have been fixed, who did not need to go to hospital to have their problems solved but who have been forced to do so by the government’s neglect.

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