DENTAL SERVICES

Ms FOX (Bright) (15:19): Madam Speaker, before speaking on the matter of dental services today, I would like to address some statements made by the member for Unley on Tuesday regarding yourself, as the member for Giles, in a grievance debate. He said that you refused to meet with the principal of the Coober Pedy Area School or attend a visit to the school prior to the public meeting in the town regarding the school.

Madam Speaker, I think it should be noted, as do you, that you had a telephone link-up meeting with the principal before the public meeting. No formal visit to the school was arranged. The public meeting was requested by the community and chaired by the member, that is, you. You believe, as do I, that you have acted professionally and fairly in your dealings with the principal, the staff, the parents and the community in the whole sad process, and I hope the member for Unley notes these comments and, indeed, perhaps corrects the record.

I also want to speak today about dental services in South Australia. Constituents have approached me about waiting lists. One constituent in particular, who works in a very public job and has to deal with people on a daily basis, has had considerable troubles gaining access to dental health care. She has approached me about waiting lists, and she really is distressed by the fact that she has to wait.

I should point out that when the Rann government came to power in 2002, the waiting list for dental care sat at 49 months; that is just over four years.

Mr Sibbons: Shame!

Ms FOX: Shame indeed, member for Mitchell! That number has now fallen to 18 months, but for some people, of course, that is still too long, and rightly so. The reasons for delays in the provisions for pensioners and other concession card holders are varied. A delay in the reintroduction of the commonwealth dental health program has had a major effect on waiting lists. Of course, the previous federal Liberal government withdrew from that program in 1996 and, in doing so, removed annual funding of $10 million from the South Australian Dental Service at that time. Think about the value of $10 million in 1996 compared with now in 2010, some 14 years ago. So, the state government was left to try to cope with the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who were just abandoned by the then federal Liberal government.

I now return to the reasons for the delays. As I said, the previous federal government withdrew from the program in 1996, and the new federal government announced its intention to reintroduce that program from July 2008, and that would have provided $24.7 million over three years for additional funding for South Australian public dental services from that date. This was projected to rapidly reduce the average waiting time for public general dental care to around 11 months by June 2009. The average waiting time for dentures was expected to reduce from 39 months to 22 months over the same period.

The reintroduced program was to be funded with savings achieved through the cessation of the previous federal government's Medicare chronic disease dental program. The delay to the reintroduction of this program has caused significant difficulties in funding new projects already approved, and the SA Dental Service has had to put strategies in place to manage these projects while continuing to provide essential services to the public.

Madam Speaker, imagine when I go to my constituent and say, 'Well, the Labor federal government that was elected in 2007 had plans to fix this.' Why were they stopped? Well, they were stopped because of the Liberals in the Senate. That is correct. Due to action taken by the federal Liberals in the Senate, that has now stalled. So, how do I explain to my constituent that, because of the actions of a few mischievous Liberal senators, who are more interested in headlines and fighting amongst themselves within their party room, she does not have access to the care she needs? It is awful. The matter remains unresolved, and I hope that it will be resolved after the federal election, because this cannot go on. It is an absolute disgrace, and I simply feel terribly sorry for my constituent in this instance.