Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just take this opportunity to wish you, Mr Deputy Speaker Quick, all the best in your retirement. I did not get the opportunity to listen to your speech yesterday in the parliament but, for my part, I would like to say that the six years I have spent here in your company have been very rewarding. I wish you all the best and thank you for the advice and guidance you have given me over those years.

Today I want to refer to a petition of 179 signatures from my constituents in Calwell calling for the re-establishment of a Commonwealth dental health program, calling for the easing of the cost pressures on working families by contributing to the cost of dental care, calling for some assistance to keep people with preventable dental conditions out of hospital with and calling for an end to the blame game and to work with the states and territories to fix Australia’s dental care system.

Australia’s public dental health system is best characterised as a national disgrace. All you have to do is ask any resident in my electorate of Calwell who is on a public dental waiting list what they think of Australia’s public dental healthcare system under the Howard government and that is exactly what they will tell you—that it is a national disgrace. In my electorate of Calwell, average waiting times for public dental care have now blown out to nearly three years. Whilst three years is a long time, whichever way you look at it for the local residents who are left to suffer what are often painful dental conditions without access to proper treatment, it feels like an eternity to those who actually have to wait with those conditions.

With people being left to manage by themselves, stories continue to emerge of local residents who develop irregular eating habits, given the pain they suffer whilst eating. There are many who avoid hot or cold foods or who avoid foods altogether that are too hard to chew. Many resort to over-the-counter painkillers or alternative remedies to try to manage their pain. The fact that this is happening in a developed, wealthy country like Australia, and the fact that it is happening at a time when Australia is reaping the economic benefits of a massive resources and mining boom, shows just how out of touch, unfortunately, the Howard government continues to be when it comes to the basic needs of working Australians.

There are now over 650,000 Australians on public dental waiting lists across Australia, including some 140,000 in my home state of Victoria. Delays in their treatment often mean that relatively simple dental conditions escalate into more serious and more complex dental problems. Dental conditions now account for a quarter of all hospitalisations for children, and around 50,000 Australians are hospitalised each year for preventable dental conditions. Australia’s public dental system is failing, and its failures stem from the Prime Minister’s decision, way back in 1996, to axe the Commonwealth funding for public dental care.

In 1996, the Howard government scrapped Australia’s $100 million Commonwealth dental program, ripping literally $100 million out of the public dental care system. Since then, the Howard government has presided over the virtual collapse of public dental care in Australia and a massive blow-out in public dental waiting times. What is more extraordinary is that, while state and territory governments have nearly doubled their investments in dental care spending over the last decade to try to fill the gap left after the Commonwealth funding was axed, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing are still trying to blame state and territory governments for the dire state of Australia’s public dental care system.

Rather than fix the problem, the Prime Minister and his minister continue to play the blame game and to put politics above the needs of ordinary Australians. Today very few can afford to pay for regular dental check-ups or expensive dental treatments. More and more people are avoiding seeing the dentist because they simply cannot afford it. Their only option is Australia’s public dental health system, but it is a system that can no longer accommodate them and can no longer provide them with the treatment they need when they need it. Indeed, what we are also seeing today is more and more people being forced to take out a loan to pay for dental treatment because of long waiting lists and exorbitant fees. A Rudd Labor government will re-establish the Commonwealth dental program to rescue Australia’s failing public dental health system after 11 years of neglect, and I call on the Howard government to do the same.

With the few moments left I would like to say that I spoke recently of my constituent Mrs Rachael Williams, who was assaulted in her home one month ago. It saddens me today to report that Mrs Williams died on Tuesday night. I want to extend my condolences to her family. I know that our community has been traumatised by the vicious attack on Mrs Williams, and it certainly has led to many of our senior citizens feeling unnecessarily insecure in their own homes. Rachael lived in Broadmeadows for 50 years, and I think this is a very tragic way for her to end her 91 years of life. (Time expired)