John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Ever since the member for Griffith assumed his current position, he has been talking about ending the blame game. His definition of the blame game is that it is okay to blame the Commonwealth but never the states, because they are all Labor. So when he talks about ending the blame game, what he is really saying is: ‘Never attack a Labor government, but it is perfectly okay to attack a federal Liberal government.’ If he imagines that by using that kind of invocation I am going to be restrained from legitimately pointing out the failures of eight state and territory Labor administrations around this country, he has got another think coming. Public dental health has from time immemorial been a responsibility of the states. The 600,000 people on the waiting lists are the fault of the state governments.

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