Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

notes that:

(a)

since the abolition of the Commonwealth Dental Program, waiting lists for dental services have increased dramatically;

(b)

an increasing number of Australians are unable to afford private dental treatment and are waiting years for dental care; and

(c)

poor dental health can contribute to a deterioration in overall health; and

(2)

calls on the Government to:

(a)

acknowledge that the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing inquiry of November 2006, The Blame Game, recommended that the Federal Government should fund dental services;

(b)

reinstate a Commonwealth dental program; and

(c)

end the ‘Blame Game’ and work cooperatively with the States and Territories to ensure that services are delivered.

Here we are yet again talking about dental health and dental health care. It is certainly an issue that I will keep speaking about until the government takes some responsibility for this and does something. It certainly is very disappointing that this government does not take its responsibility for the dental health of its citizens seriously. This is despite the fact that a Commonwealth dental scheme is certainly very urgently needed throughout this nation.

A recent ACOSS national report on the state of dental care explains that it is not just low-income Australians who cannot afford to go to the dentist. ACOSS estimates that 40 per cent of Australians cannot access dental care when they need it. In my electorate of Richmond, I hear stories every day of locals who have been waiting for years to have basic dental work done. Some are in extreme pain, some are barely able to eat or speak, some have their dentures simply falling out of their mouths and some even have to resort to pulling out their own teeth. This is clearly unacceptable and, indeed, I believe it is quite shameful.

As I said, every day people raise issues with me—particularly elderly people who are certainly in extreme pain. Elderly people and young families cannot afford to see a private dentist; it is these people who have been abandoned by this government. Yet it seems that MPs on the other side of the House refuse to take up the fight for their constituents. It seems they are happy for people in their electorates to wait years to have their teeth fixed.

Instead of telling the Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Ageing that they need to invest in dental care, what do those on the other side of the House do? They spend their time buck-passing and carping on about the states. That is all we tend to hear from the other side. State and territory governments have invested in dental care, but they need the federal government to fulfil its responsibility. But the Howard government consistently refuses to do this. Time and time again it has refused to do so.

Just to enlighten coalition members, I draw their attention to section 51(xxiiiA) of the Australian Constitution, which gives the federal government responsibility for dental health. It might be good if they brushed up on that to see exactly where the responsibility for this important area lies. But instead of taking this responsibility seriously, the Howard government scrapped the $100 million a year Commonwealth Dental Health Scheme in 1996. This is despite the Minister for Health and Ageing saying:

The Keating government’s program did reduce waiting times, no doubt about that.

So perhaps the health minister can explain to the 4,000 people in my electorate of Richmond who have signed my petition calling for the Commonwealth funding to be restored just why he refuses to take responsibility for their dental health. And it is not just the dental health of local people that the health minister is putting at risk. Indeed, recent studies have shown that poor dental health can lead to a range of general health problems. These include strokes, heart disease and chronic infections. And it can also make diabetes difficult to manage.

By not providing adequate public dental health care and not training enough dentists, the federal government is putting the health of Australians at risk. In the recent report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing inquiry entitled The blame game: report on the inquiry into health funding, it was recommended that the federal government should fund dental services. This committee noted this in its blame game report, so why can’t the government acknowledge it? Why is it so hard for members opposite to acknowledge that fact? It is time to stop the buck-passing and reinstate a Commonwealth dental program. Let us end the blame game and let us see the federal government working cooperatively with the states and territories to ensure that services are delivered and to ensure there is adequate health care for all of those who need it throughout our communities.

In contrast to the Howard government and their absolute inaction on this very important health issue, federal Labor have been very proactive in this area. We announced that we would restore federal funding for dental care and we are currently examining a range of options for a broad based Commonwealth system offering free dental care on a means-tested basis. Indeed, a Rudd Labor government will focus on prevention and early intervention, taking the pressure off waiting lists and tackling our dentist shortages. We are doing this because we acknowledge that it is a federal government responsibility to provide dental health care and that the Howard government is not meeting that obligation.

I call on coalition MPs to support this motion and stop blaming everybody but their own government for this problem. This is an issue that requires national leadership; it is not about blaming. It is very easy for the government to stand here and blame the states in relation to this, but this is not about blaming; it is about fixing the problem. So I call on government members to support this motion. I call on them to have the Commonwealth dental scheme back in place and to work with the states to make sure we have adequate dental health services for all Australians who so desperately need it. (Time expired)

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