Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Bridging the dental gap report, which I spoke about in the main chamber, along with the chair, when the report was tabled. I recognise and acknowledge the speech just made by the member for Hindmarsh, who was the Chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Ageing until he was elevated to higher office. I thank him for his acknowledgement during his speech about the Bridging the dental gap report.

The report was short and quick, but it needed to be done by the government to get something in place on dental services, which, as we have just heard from the member for Hindmarsh, are so important not only to adults, children and people with chronic disease but to people in rural, remote and regional areas in Australia. One thing that came out of the report is that we need to have a united front in this area to make sure that the services and outcomes for people with dental and oral health issues are positive. We need to make sure that the states are all on board and that everyone works together to get the best outcomes for those people.

During the inquiry we travelled to Dubbo, to Charles Sturt University. I would like to acknowledge that that is one of the best remote and rural services I have ever seen. If that is a model that could be rolled out across the country it would be most beneficial, particularly, to remote rural and regional areas. We heard how the Royal Flying Doctor Service dispense their oral and dental health treatments out into the really remote areas, where Indigenous oral health is probably at its worst but, in particular, the visit to Dubbo's Charles Sturt University was a highlight. The people who were being treated on the day were getting free treatment by the students who had gone past their second year of training, and they will be treated by them until the students graduate. While we were there we heard that the first batch of graduations is going to happen this year. The environment was light, friendly and very professional. We spoke to some of the people who had had some treatment, and they were happy to use this free service with the interns and to bring their children along to use those facilities as well. It provides a much needed service for a remote and rural area.

In closing, I again commend this report to the House and I congratulate the committee and the secretariat for the work they did. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the current chair and the previous chair of the committee for working cooperatively with me over this parliament. It is good that we have not seen a dissenting report to any of the reports that we have written. I think that that is probably unique within the parliament. Again, I would like to thank both the chair and the previous chair.

Debate adjourned.

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