Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition’s motion to disallow this determination closing the Howard government’s failed chronic disease dental scheme is a further example of an irresponsible, reactionary approach to policy. Essentially we saw that over the last 11 years, particularly in the former government’s approach to dental health. This opposition is crying crocodile tears about dental health—displaying a new-found interest in dental health, as the minister has just outlined.

If this opposition really cared about dental health, why did they take $100 million a year from the Commonwealth Dental Health Program as one of their first acts when they came into government in 1996? That program had been reviewed and found to be extraordinarily successful in reducing the waiting lists for public dental care, and yet one of the first things they did in 1996 was remove the Commonwealth’s contribution through the Commonwealth Dental Health Program. Why did they then ignore dental health as an issue for almost a decade? The shadow parliamentary secretary has just outlined their new-found interest in dental health, indicating that in November last year the first action of this program came into effect. Something else happened in November of last year that Senator Colbeck—