Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Access to dental care is critically important for people's health. Our government acknowledges that there are barriers to accessing affordable dental services and we are committed to the long-term goal of expanding Medicare to dental health services.

I want to begin with a story from very early in my political career—in fact, from when I was running for preselection here in Canberra. When I was calling around Labor members to talk to them about supporting me, I spoke to a woman who had noticed that I had said that expanding public dental care was one of the things I cared about. She had got to a point where her teeth were so bad—and she couldn't afford to get them fixed—that it meant that she didn't leave her house. She was an active Labor Party member who wouldn't even come to the forums or to cast her vote in person for that preselection, for that reason. That was absolutely heartbreaking—that someone in our community would come to that point because of their inability to pay for health care. We talked a bit about the issue, and she said she was aware, of course, that there was funding for children to access dental care publicly. She said, 'I understand how important this is. As a single mother of four now-adult children, I understand why it is really important to help children to get dental care.' It just really struck me that this woman had given so much, not just to her own family but to our society, in raising four children, and yet we, as a community, couldn't guarantee her a standard of health care that meant that she could continue to participate in her community. We can do much better than this. And that story will always stay with me.

It is incredibly important that we do expand public access to dental care. As I said, this is something that our government is committed to in the long-term.

I also want to acknowledge the work of dentist Dr Buuloc Lam in my electorate, who was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of her humanitarian dental work internationally and in local charities in our community. Dr Lam runs a dental surgery in Braddon and, over the past 10 years, has regularly travelled to rural Vietnam and Nepal to provide humanitarian dental services. In just a single day during a trip to Vietnam in November 2019, Dr Lam and her colleague provided dental examinations for 68 children at a school. But, during the COVID pandemic, when Dr Lam could not travel overseas, she began providing dental care and funding support to Karinya House for mothers and babies in Canberra, Companion House and Sanjiwani Australia. Dr Lam's work has made a difference to so many lives here in our community. I just want to congratulate her again on that really important humanitarian work that she does, which shows just how important this access is.

Health ministers have made dental policy reform a priority and are considering funding reform options. In the 2023 budget, the government announced $2.1 million over two years for immediate developmental work to underpin long-term reform of funding for adult public dental services, and this work is ongoing.

Our government is also continuing to work with state and territory colleagues to improve dental care for all Australians. In the 2023-24 budget, the government announced funding of $215.6 million over two years to support states and territories in delivering these services. Additionally, the government funds the provision of basic dental services for children from low-income families aged up to 17 years, through the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. Since its commencement in 2014, the CDBS has provided $3.1 billion in benefits and delivered $51 million worth of services to 3.5 million Australian children.

The Albanese government is strengthening Medicare with more Medicare urgent care clinics, more free mental health services, higher Medicare rebates for many common medical tests and over $160 million for a women's health package. In this budget, we have built on the previous budget's record investment with a further $2.8 billion to strengthen Medicare with more Medicare urgent care clinics, more free mental health services and a recent investment over four years to expand the range of free mental health services so that Australians get the right level of care for their level of need. Labor is the party of Medicare, and we are the party that is going to be there for people who need government support the most. That is an incredibly important thing that we must never lose sight of.

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