Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. Almost one-third of Australians are avoiding dental care due to the massive costs that they face today. Tooth decay is Australia’s most common health problem and is easily preventible, yet more than one-quarter of all Australians are suffering from untreated dental decay. Many on dental waiting lists are elderly, and surely we can and must do more for these people who helped build this country into what it is today. But perhaps an even bigger tragedy is the state of our children’s teeth. In the mid-1990s, Australian kids had world’s best teeth, but now there are real concerns that this is slipping. Between 1996 and 1999 there was a 21.7 per cent increase in decay among five-year-olds and there were soaring hospitalisation figures for the removal or restoration of teeth. Over a decade there has been a 91 per cent increase in hospitalisation rates for our children with dental health problems.

A Rudd Labor government will end the blame game and work with the states and territories to fix Australia’s crumbling dental care system. We will provide services for those in our communities who are desperately in need of dental care. We will ensure that working families under financial pressure from higher housing, child care and petrol costs do not have to choose between the dental care they need and putting a meal on the table. Labor will provide almost $300 million to make available one million new dental consultations. This funding will allow the states and territories to either supplement their existing public services or pay for private dental appointments. State and territory governments will be expected to meet new benchmarks of care and will be required to maintain their existing commitments. Labor’s policy will provide the treatment battling Australians have needed for the past 11 years.

If the Howard government spent a fraction of the money it is spending on government paid advertising to try and get itself re-elected on Australia’s dental care needs, millions of Australians would not be in the situation they are in now. I urge the Howard government to adopt Labor’s plan and put in place a decent dental health scheme that will actually deliver the care that most Australians need to those who need it.

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