Dental Scheme Battle Gets Personal In Australia
The battle over the future of the Chronic Dental Disease Scheme in Australia has just got personal, after the federal opposition launched a scathing attack on Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek.
Peter Dutton, spokesman for health for the opposition, announced a campaign to stop the abolition of the current dental scheme and criticised Ms Plibersek, saying that “incompetence reigns supreme” in her office and suggesting that she spends her time “sitting around Canberra cafes.”
Mr Dutton also accused Labor of closing down the dental scheme to “trash” Tony Abbott, the architect of the CDDS scheme and previous leader of the Opposition.
Mr Dutton is encouraging MPs, including Labor backbenchers, to support the notion to stop the closure of the CDDS scheme; he said that closing down the programme a year before the new dental scheme is due to come into play, would leave those most in need of help without access to dental care. There will be a period of 19 months between the closure of the CDDS and the introduction of the new scheme if Mr Dutton’s campaign is unsuccessful.
The government announced that a new, cheaper universal dental scheme would be launched in 2014 to replace the CDDS, but the Opposition is worried that hundreds, even thousands of people will be left in the lurch in the 19 month period before the launch of the new scheme.
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