David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021 removes the lower age eligibility restriction from the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to allow eligible children under 18 years of age to access the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. This amendment will expand the number of children who are eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Scheme by around 300,000 per year and will cost $5.4 million over four years.

The Child Dental Benefits Scheme has been in operation since 2014 and, over that time, has provided over $2.3 billion in benefits and delivered more than 38 million services to over three million Australian children. The Child Dental Benefits Scheme plays an important role in promoting the oral health of Australian children by providing access to dental benefit services up to a cap of $1,013 in benefits over two calendar years.

The Child Dental Benefits Scheme helps children build good oral health and habits through to adulthood. The Child Dental Benefits Scheme is available in both the private and public sectors to support the broadest range of service provision, choice and access to services in a range of settings and locations. The government will continue to work with private and public providers to improve the delivery of dental services to Australia's children. I thank the members for their contribution to the debate on this bill.

See this speech in context