Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will delay what I intended to speak about to reply to some comments made by the honourable member for Cunningham. I note that members of the Labor Party continue to peddle misinformation about the dental health scheme and try to say that it is a program of the federal government.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Should be.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

‘Should be,’ I hear over here now, so we have a changed position.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It never was. I was a member of the cabinet of the New South Wales government for seven years and I clearly understand the health agreement between the federal government and the states. It was part of our health program in New South Wales. Admittedly, there was a waiting list at the time. I clearly recall in the 1993 federal election when then Prime Minister Paul Keating looked like he was not going to win the election and in the last little while promised so many millions of dollars for so many procedures over a set period of time. That is the only involvement the federal government has ever had in the dental health scheme. This government completed the program that was promised by the Keating government and it then reverted back to the states. As treasuries often do, I noted in New South Wales, even though we were in government, treasuries diverted the state funds as soon as the federal funds arrived. As usual the cost shifting continued.

I rose to talk about the media. I spoke in the debate last week about the standards of media reporting in Australia. It was brought to my attention early last week that standards are appalling, in this instance in the regional media. A week before I had been asked to represent the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, who is at the table, at an opening of an entertainment centre at Byron Bay. It was actually in the electorate of the member for Richmond but, of course, we all know that the Labor Party say that this is National Party boondoggling. So the minister quite rightly asked whether I would go along to open the entertainment centre. Obviously the member for Richmond did not approve of it because it was only a boondoggle. So I went along to open it and I duly did so. It was a pleasure to be there. There were 300 or 400 people there. The mayor of Byron Bay introduced me, in a sort of a way, to the assembled community, and it was quite a good evening. I congratulate the people who were involved. It was something like a $1.3 million investment to which the federal government made a contribution of $250,000. I think it will be a very good project. The member for Ballina, Don Page, was there as well.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the Northern Star on Monday morning. The Northern Star is based in Lismore, New South Wales. The headline across, I think, the third page was, ‘High-flying mayor opens entertainment centre’. They even had a lovely photo of her on the trapeze. I remember the camera being there, so obviously they had it all lined up to get this photograph. They had the story written before the place was opened. I rang up the deputy editor of the Northern Star and said, ‘What’s this story you’ve got on page 3 today?’ He said, ‘That’s the opening of the entertainment centre.’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s correct, but I opened it.’ He said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘I opened it.’ He said, ‘I’ll check on that.’ He came back about half an hour later and said, ‘We got that information from a publicity agent.’ I said, ‘That’s okay, but the whole story is wrong.’ Mr Speaker, do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘We can’t be responsible for that.’ Here is a paper that did not even check its facts.

As I was saying last week about the media: they do not check their facts, they go to print, they publish stories that are obviously fiction and yet they will not bother to retract or even correct them. The newspaper still have not corrected that story. It would only take a little note to say, ‘We got it wrong; we apologise.’ But they have not retracted; the story remains. The local paper, the Byron Echo, which is not always on our side, did get it right. So we have two adjoining papers. One says that I opened the entertainment centre and the other says that the high-flying mayor opened the entertainment centre. I have to say to you, Mr Speaker, that if the journalists’ code of ethics means anything then these people have to do their homework a lot better than they do. (Time expired)