Page 3029 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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contravention of the standing orders. I would like you to draw his attention to the standing orders in relation to that because he is a serial offender.
More to the point of the question, the question was: what action have you taken since 2002 to ensure that appropriate access to oral maxillofacial surgery is available in the ACT? So to wax lyrical and wide about what the commonwealth has done is not appropriate.
MR SPEAKER: Come to the subject matter of the question, Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am more than happy to do that. For the Liberal Party to suggest that issues around dental care and dental health are irrelevant to any discussion around oral maxillo really illustrates the level and the depth of the embarrassment that the ACT Liberals have in relation to the actions of their colleagues in the federal parliament. In their first budget, back in 1996-97, John Howard and Peter Costello slashed funding for public dentistry across Australia by, I think, of the order of $200 million.
Mrs Burke: I have a point of order.
MR STANHOPE: We, as the government, have sought—
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! There is a point of order.
Mrs Burke: Again, I remind the Chief Minister, through you, Mr Speaker, that he must observe the standing orders, like all of us in this house. The point of order is under 118 (b) as well: the relevance of the matter. We asked the Chief Minister what he has done, follow-up action post 2002, to ensure that appropriate access to oral maxillofacial surgery is available in the ACT.
MR SPEAKER: And the Chief Minister was drawing a connection between dental care and that sort of surgery.
MR STANHOPE: And that is a very legitimate connection to draw. The Liberal Party now, because of their embarrassment in relation to the savage cuts by their colleagues federally in relation to public dentistry, are embarrassed to have the question answered. They are embarrassed because of their complicity in the most mean-spirited, if not vicious, decision taken by John Howard and Peter Costello in relation to healthcare delivery in Australia—the slashing. I think in the first budget it was of the order of $200 million that was taken out of public dentistry by the Howard government.
The states and territories had sought to close the gap. Indeed, in our last budget, as we continue to seek to close the gap in relation to available care and facilities for people on the dentistry list, we provided an additional $1.7 million. That was just in this year’s budget, seeking to close the gap in another area of health care completely abandoned by the federal Liberal Party.
In relation to this particular issue of oral maxillo, the shadow minister for health, of course, provided some information in relation to Mrs Burke’s press release. In relation
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