Bairnsdale public dental waitlist
Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (19:04): (6368) My adjournment is to the Minister for Health, and the action I seek is for the minister to address the public dental waitlist in Bairnsdale. We have had people in the last month who have attended this service needing urgent dental work, and they have been told differing stories about the waitlist. Some have been told two years. More than one other has been told it is four years. But the reality is, whichever one it is, it is a waiting list that is not acceptable. It is not just unique to East Gippsland, obviously, but I raise this on behalf of my constituency. It is fairly common right around rural and regional Victoria, but it was disappointing to pick up the budget papers and read about a $22.4 million cut to public dental services. How are we going to get on top of these waiting lists when we are reducing funding? While waitlists have blown out over recent years we need a greater investment to fix this, and that is what I am asking the minister to do.
One of the persons that came into my office two weeks ago now made the comment—quite angry, because they were in pain—that we have cut the public dental budget and we are funding an office in France. That was a comment that was made by the constituent, not me. It is pretty hard to defend that. So I ask the minister what he is doing to address the public dental waiting list in East Gippsland and ask him to also give consideration to those other areas around the state that are facing a similar predicament.