Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is really quite disappointing to see members opposite scratching around, trying to find something negative to say about a budget that has been received overwhelmingly in a positive way and that contains a vast number of positive initiatives. It locks in our prosperity, continues our strong track record of sound economic management and invests for the future. Yet we have to go through this charade where members opposite try to find something negative for the sake of negativity.

There is much I would like to say about the strengths of this budget generally but I will save it for the debate on the appropriations bill. Tonight I would like to speak about some aspects regarding education that are of particular interest to me. The member for Newcastle has referred to the funding announcement of a dental school for Charles Sturt University. I am delighted to see the assistant minister at the dispatch box. The member for Parkes has worked with me and a number of other colleagues, including the member for Riverina and Senator Nash, to bring this proposal to fruition. Last night, in the budget, the Treasurer announced $65 million for a dental school for Charles Sturt University. This is an initiative that will provide long-term solutions to the dental crisis that affects New South Wales, particularly regional New South Wales. This proposal includes $54.5 million for the establishment of the dental school itself, $4 million for student accommodation and $6.6 million over four years for the places for training in the dental schools.

The structure is that the undergraduate preclinical and clinical work will be done at the Orange and Wagga campuses. For the graduate years—years 4 and 5—clinics will be established in Bathurst, Albury and Dubbo. This proposal that will cover vast areas of central western and western New South Wales that area suffering so badly. The proposal is that there will be 240 dental places in the pipeline and students will begin studying in 2009. Three years later there will be an anticipated 30 graduates a year in oral health and related oral health sciences. Then two years after that there will be the start of a stream of 30 graduates in dentistry each year from these clinical schools in this university. This is a quality proposal. I want to congratulate Charles Sturt University on the amount of work that they put into building this proposal and for their research and hard work. They put in the hard yards.

It was obvious, when this proposal was brought to me and to my colleagues, that it was worth supporting. This proposal is a win-win situation. Firstly, it provides extra education places in regional New South Wales, in the central west of New South Wales, which is a part of the state in which I am very interested. It provides improved, increased, expanded educational opportunities for young people in this part of the state. Secondly, it directly adds to the supply of dental services because in years 4 and 5 those students will be under very close supervision working in those clinical facilities in Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga and Albury, directly providing both public and private dental services in those areas of great need. Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, this project will address the dental crisis at its root source, and that is an inadequate supply of dentists. By increasing the supply of dentists, we will be addressing the key issues that affect the shortage of dental services right throughout the state.

This is a quality proposal. I want to congratulate everyone involved. I want to congratulate Charles Sturt University Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter. I want to congratulate Marge Bollinger and the committee of volunteers that were behind this. I want to congratulate and thank my colleagues on assisting me in this project.

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