Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021. Despite being the first speaker I will only go for a short period of time, and the member for Hindmarsh, as the shadow minister for health, will follow me in speaking in the debate. This bill amends the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to remove the lower eligibility age restriction of two years to allow eligible children to access the Child Dental Benefits Schedule from zero years of age. It's a good move.

Like the bill we've just debated in this place, the organ and tissue donation authority bill, introduced by this government, these changes build on a very proud Labor legacy. They are shining examples of what good progressive Labor governments do when they are in government. They reform health and they ensure that there is a lasting legacy of reform, of improving and increasing services that are available to the Australian public, which stands in stark contrast to the sort of behaviour we've seen from those opposite—no reform, no agenda, minute improvements in health and this debacle of a crisis we've got before us at the moment.

To remind people: it was the Gillard Labor government that introduced the Child Dental Benefits Schedule in August 2012 as part of the Dental Health Reform Package, comprising three elements. There was a $1.3 billion national partnership agreement about adult public dental services—something this government has absolutely slashed, and we have seen a reduction in Commonwealth funding for public dental. There was a $225 million flexible grants program, which saw improvements in capital to public dental facilities and expansion of access to dental chairs right the way across the country but particularly in areas of vulnerability, of low socio-economic status, and improved access to public dental. Then we had the $2.7 billion Child Dental Benefits Schedule, replacing the former Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, which closed in November 2012, and the Medicare Teen Dental Plan, which closed in 2013. It was a really significant reform—a reform designed to increase the capacity of our health system to look after the oral health of children and to set children up for lifelong good oral health.

It is worth reminding those opposite—there are a lot of new people here in the chamber—that when Minister Ley was the health minister, in those first years of the Abbott government, now the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison-Joyce government, the government sought to abolish this scheme. We are very proud of the fact that we managed to stare down their attempts to abolish this scheme and that it has now become entrenched as part of our healthcare system. That is what we always have to do: Labor governments expand access to services across a range of health issues and then try to defend it against Liberal-National party cuts. We desperately tried to do that on public dental. We were not as successful as we would have liked, but we certainly stared them down on this. We then ensure it is entrenched as part of our health system—and it has become something that the government itself is now expanding, which is good to see.

The Report on the fourth review of the Dental Benefits Act 2008, tabled on 23 July 2019, recommended lowering the current eligibility age to one year. By removing the lower eligibility age restriction altogether, which is what this bill is doing, it is estimated that an additional 300,000 children aged between zero and two will become eligible for the program each year, starting from 1 January 2022. It's estimated that each year 15 per cent of children in this newly-eligible age group, presenting with teeth, will access the scheme.

The Child Dental Benefits Schedule literally changed the lives of millions of young Australians and their families, and we're pleased to say that this bill will help. Since Labor introduced the reform it has provided over $2.3 billion in benefits and delivered more than 38 million services to over three million Australian children, changing forever the capacity of those children and setting them up with good oral health from the start. We've all seen this—we've all been in schools in our electorates and in communities across the place where we have seen children as young as five with rotten baby teeth having to go for emergency dental services and having those removed. But the Child Dental Benefits Schedule provides eligible children, particularly from low-income families, with access to dental services. This bill means that they get that access right the way from birth through to when the scheme's eligibility ceases.

Three million Australian children have avoided worsening physical and mental health impacts from untreated dental conditions thanks to this program, with massive flow-on benefits to their families, their communities and to the broader Australian society—including the government's bottom line—from avoided downstream medical costs. This is a fantastic Labor legacy and it is a great demonstration of what a government focused on working to make Australian lives easier can actually achieve. The bill represents a welcome reform to the dental benefit schedule, and Labor supports it as an extension of Labor's legacy. The bill extends coverage of the scheme to children from birth to 17 years, as I said, removing that lower age limit.

It is well known and accepted that parents promoting and practising good oral hygiene with children from a young age will aid in the prevention of more serious dental decay and associated health impacts as they grow up. The bill will help to deliver a positive initial dental experience for more Australian kids and help to curb the unfortunate, sometimes negative, stigma for children heading to the dentist and on oral hygiene. Any parent of small children knows how incredibly hard it is to get them to clean their teeth regularly. It provides a much-needed boost when you take them to the dentist to actually get the dentist to teach them how to do that properly, to actually practice good oral hygiene and to reinforce the messages that you as a parent are making.

As a result of the change the government is making in this bill, as I said, an extra 300,000 children will benefit from the scheme. From 1 January 2022 it's estimated that 15 per cent of children in this new eligible group, 45,000 children per year, will now be able to access the scheme. That is 45,000 children a year with better oral health, and better physical and mental health as a result. It's a good thing. It means up to 45,000 families with fewer worries about being able to pay for the dental care that their kids need. And it means 45,000 children with better relationship experiences with and views of dentists, having been exposed to a dentist early in life, with the benefits flowing through for the rest of their lives. That's why Labor supports the bill and we commend it to the House.

That said, it's not the only area in which the government can improve health outcomes for all Australians. As I said, what we've seen in this bill and the bill previously is what good, progressive Labor governments do. They expand access to services under our healthcare system and they build in lasting reforms and lasting legacies that improve health equity and health outcomes for the Australian population. Too many of the government's bills, frankly, have been about tinkering around the edges when much more substantial reform is needed. This is particularly the case in rural and regional Australia, and I will be moving a second reading amendment on behalf of the member for Hindmarsh, but which is now circulated in my name and seconded by the member for Fenner, that goes to this issue.

Over eight long years we have seen the Morrison-Joyce government failing to improve the very dire situation facing rural and regional communities. In fact, they're contributing to making the GP shortage in those communities worse. A lack of doctors and other medical professionals in regional and rural communities across Australia is not a new problem, but a series of government decisions and the pandemic mean that it's time to highlight this critical issue before people are left with no healthcare options in their communities. More towns are being left without doctors, people needing care are left with longer drives and life expectancy is lower. I see it in my own home town and I see it in the smaller towns that make up my electorate.

On average, Australians living in rural and remote areas have shorter lives and higher level s of disease compared with people living in metropolitan areas. In 2017-18 , potentially preventable hospitalisation rates in very remote areas were 2.5 times higher than in our major cities. That's what has been happening. Part of this equation is, of course, access. This is one reason why Labor recently led the formation of a Senate inquiry into the provision of general practitioner and related primary health services to outer metropolitan, rural and regional Australia. This will be an important forum for the issues to be explored, but the government cannot use this inquiry as an excuse to wait. Improving access, attracting doctors and retaining services is something that should be a priority now. The Morr ison-Joyce government must act.

All that said, and on behalf of the member for Hindmarsh , joining us virtually, I move the following amendment:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes the bill expands access to public dental services; and

(2) urges the Government to do more to address:

(a) access to dental and other health services, including General Practice, in outer-metropolitan, rural and regional Australia; and

(b) out of pocket costs for all Australians accessing these services".

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021. Oral health is fundamental to overall health, wellbeing and quality of life. A healthy mouth enables people to eat, speak and socialise without pain, discomfort or embarrassment. The impact of oral disease on people's everyday lives is subtle and pervasive, influencing the way we eat, the way we work, the way we sleep and, indeed, our social interactions. The prevalence and recurrence of these impacts constitutes a sil ent epidemic if left untreated.

Dental diseases lead to pain, discomfort and tooth loss and can lead to difficulties with chewing, swallowing and speech. Poor oral health can lead to problems with nutrition and general health and disruptions to sleep and productivity , and can be a barrier to full participation in society, including the ability to gain employment. Indeed, the national study of adult oral health indicates that, of the Australian population, 24 per cent avoid ed food due to dental problems—that's one in four people—20 pe r cent experienced regular tooth ache, 35 per cent were uncomfortable about their dental appearance and 24 per cent rated their oral health as fair or poor. There are also links between poor oral health ; g eneral diseases, including type 2 diabetes ; and cardiovascular health.

Most importantly, dental health is cumulative in nature, and poor oral health in childhood is a predictor of poor oral health throughout life. It's the great inequity of health care. Therefore, it's critical to ensure that young children have access to preventive dental care from an early age to give them the best possible chance of good oral health for life. That is why I welcome the bill being debated here today.

This bill amends the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to remove the lower eligibility age restriction of two years so that all children under 18 can access the scheme. I know from friends, colleagues and constituents how much they have enjoyed using the dental benefits scheme for their children, and I really welcome this extension to the under-2 age group.

The amendment is based on the Report of the fourth review of the Dental Benefits Act 2008 and has been developed in consultation with stakeholders. The review committee included the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, representatives of the Australian Dental Association, Consumers Health Forum of Australia, private dental practitioners, dental advisers to the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Health, as well as Oral Health Services Tasmania. Stakeholders that were consulted, including state and territory dental health services, Services Australia, the federal government Indigenous health division and academic dental professionals, all agreed that, if parents promote and practise good oral hygiene with their children from a young age, this will help in the prevention of more serious dental decay as their children grow up. It's a fact that is widely understood by parents, experts and the community. Any parent who has tried to clean their kids' teeth when they're very young will understand how difficult that can be, pragmatically.

Before the passage of this bill, eligible children aged between two and 17 years are currently entitled to access up to $1,300 in benefits for basic dental services, with benefits capped over two consecutive calendar years. This bill removes the minimum age of eligibility so that children under two years of age can access this scheme. Services that receive a benefit under the program include examinations, X-rays, cleaning, fissure sealing, filling, root canals, extractions and partial dentures where necessary. Services can be provided in a public or private setting, but benefits are not available for orthodontic or cosmetic dental work.

One in three Australian children experience tooth decay by the age of five or six years, and tooth decay is the leading cause of preventable hospitalisation in Australian children. Most people don't realise this. It is actually quite extraordinary. As a paediatrician, I worked with Professor Nicky Kilpatrick on a number of oral health initiatives, particularly for orofacial granulomatosis, which is an oral expression of Crohn's disease. I know how difficult management of oral health is in young children.

There are three key things that parents can do to look after their children's oral health. One of the most important ones is to reduce the amount of added sugar that they consume. They need to help their children to brush their teeth twice daily, with fluoride toothpaste, to clean between the teeth—essentially, to floss—and to attend their dentist for regular dental check-ups. We know that sugar in food and drink is a major contributor to tooth decay today. Children aged two to three years of age, on average, eat nine teaspoons of added sugar per day, and teenagers eat even more. They eat 20 teaspoons of added sugar per day. The World Health Organization recommends reducing added sugar consumption to fewer than six teaspoons per day to minimise the risk of tooth decay but also to avoid obesity and type 2 diabetes. WHO is clear: oral hygiene measures are important in preventing tooth decay and gum disease through the regular removal of plaque bacteria that cause disease.

Guidelines also tell us that fluoride in toothpaste helps to strengthen teeth to prevent tooth decay from starting and also helps to repair the early signs of damage to teeth. This is also why water fluoridation and drinking tap water are important. Don't just drink water from a bottle. Make sure you drink tap water. We are lucky in Australia that most of our water is fluoridated. I'm of the age when, growing up in country Victoria/New South Wales, in Albury-Wodonga, our water was not fluoridated, and we had to take daily fluoride tablets as children.

Because of high-sugar diets, dental disease still does occur—even though we have excellent rates of fluoridation in Australia—particularly for those who use fruit juices early in life. Having worked in developing countries, I can tell you that fruit juice decay is simply awful and incredibly dangerous. Even when I worked in the United States, people in disadvantaged communities would give fruit juice in bottles to their toddlers, and these toddlers would come into hospital with completely black teeth. Unfortunately parents did not know that sugar on the teeth of children is a solvent and can actually rot their teeth. And fruit juice is not what people think. It has a lot of added sugar; it's just not declared in a way that you would think.

Tooth decay in children progresses rapidly from an early lesion that can be reversed to a large cavity that might require extraction or, worse, result in a nasty tooth abscess. Regular dental check-ups, particularly in high-risk children, are important for early detection of disease and to ensure that appropriate prevention strategies and modifications to risky behaviour can be implemented. The Australian Dental Association recommend that a child's first dental visit should occur when the first tooth erupts, which is usually around six months of age, or by one year of age. Tooth decay in Australia has a strong social gradient, with a higher burden of disease amongst children whose parents are from vulnerable population groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people from a non-English speaking background, people from regional and rural areas and people from a low household income or educational background.

The Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule provides vital funding to ensure that these vulnerable children are able to access the necessary health care to help prevent and treat dental disease. However, the current eligibility requirements have until now prevented children under the age of two from accessing the scheme. It is estimated that around 20 per cent of children already experience tooth decay by the age of two years and many of those require irreversible treatment, often under general anaesthetic. This treatment is traumatic for the child and their parents, and can continue to longer-term issues of fear and anxiety, which can impact on future dental visiting patterns and create a risk of ongoing dental problems. I know because, as a child, I had a serious and significant dental phobia, which meant I avoided going to the dentist for many years—until I developed a tooth abscess and quickly got over my dental phobia because the pain was worse than the fear of going to the dentist. So I know how hard it is. But that's because, in the old days, there wasn't fluoridation and we had many more visits to the dentist. And we are now seeing much better dental health care.

If this bill is passed, it will enable vulnerable children to visit the dentist from an early age and avoid more complex treatment and hospitalisation for care and, hopefully, avoid dental phobia in the future. Unfortunately, only 56 per cent of children aged five to six years have visited the dentist before the age of five, and this decreases to 46 per cent for children from low-income families. Financial cost is a major barrier to accessing dental care for many families, and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule provides an important mechanism to address this. As we heard from the previous speaker, this bill will support 45,000 families to access dental services each year. It's something all of us in the House should be proud of, because this is about children's future.

A recent study investigated the impact of COVID-19, however, and we know that dental services have taken a real hit because people have been locked down and unable to access dental health care. This is something I would like to comment on in the last few minutes that I have. In Victoria there were 881,000 fewer dental services provided in 2020 than in 2019—a reduction of 27 per cent. There was also a great decline in preventive and diagnostic services. Dental practices in my home state of Victoria in particular have gone through six periods of restriction of their ability to provide dental services since the pandemic began. For nearly six of the last 18 months, patients were restricted to mostly urgent or emergency dental care only. The COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on the provision of dental services—in particular, to children from low socio-economic backgrounds, who already experience higher levels of dental disease and disadvantage in accessing dental care.

To those listening: please don't delay your dental health check-up. Your teeth are some of your most important health assets. That is why I support the amendment and that is why it is so important. I commend the bill to the House.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I give the call to the next speaker, I want to flag something that was quite disruptive. I'm not sure if the member for Mackellar can hear me. You are on a very large screen in the Australian parliament. I was trying to pay attention to your colleague the member for Higgins, and you were in the background chatting on the phone and gesticulating. I would suggest that that might be interpreted as being discourteous to your colleagues and should stop.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021. In the early weeks of lockdown in New South Wales, in Greater Sydney, one of my lockdown binges was a TV series called This Way Up. The lead character spends a couple of days with a missing tooth after it was accidentally knocked out. The consequence of avoiding smiling or laughing or even talking normally was of course very dramatically played out, but the point couldn't be missed: for such a small thing, losing a tooth has a really dramatic effect on you.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which does really great research and is chaired by my predecessor, the former member for Macquarie Louise Markus, publishes a lot of information about the consequences of poor oral health and poor dental health. I want to go to some of the things that it identifies as being consequences:

Poor oral health—mainly tooth decay, gum disease and tooth loss—may result in a person experiencing pain, discomfort and feelings of embarrassment. They may also choose to avoid eating some foods and taking part in certain activities. Poor oral health is also associated with a range of diseases and conditions, such as heart and lung diseases, stroke, low birthweight and premature births—

And, it goes on:

Tooth loss can affect both oral function and appearance, and therefore negatively impact on quality of life.

It can actually 'reduce the functionality of the mouth, making chewing and swallowing more challenging', and that 'can compromise nutrition'. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says:

On average, Australians aged 15 years and over are missing 5.7 teeth. The average number of missing teeth increases with age, from 3.2 for people aged 15-34 years up to 13 for people aged 75 years and over.

What they also say is:

Poor adult oral health is strongly predicted by poor childhood oral health.

We know that since the late seventies the oral health of children has improved, likely with the use of fluoride in water and toothpaste, but 'more recent trends suggest that children's oral health may actually be deteriorating'. The institute says:

Around 1 in 4 (27%) children aged 5-10 years and around 1 in 10 (11%) children aged 6-14 years had at least one tooth with untreated decay.

That's what we know about the facts of adult oral health and how it can be determined, in some ways, by what happens with children, which is why what we're talking about here is so important.

In August 2012, I remember the Gillard Labor government introducing the Dental Health Reform Package to help bridge the gap between the need for treatment and people actually receiving it. I remember it, because I was a candidate at that stage; I'd lost an election, and I was running in the next election. I followed very closely the really positive things that were being done, especially in the area of what could be seen as trying to prevent longer-term problems, and this one was one of those.

I know I was really lucky to be a child that had a mother who made me eat horrible tasting fluoride tablets before fluoride was in the water and regularly took us to the dentist, but over the years I've seen many people who hadn't been so lucky. They talk about the cost and the pain of dealing with the consequences of it—the cost, if they could afford it.

A key part of the Gillard government package was the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, delivering means tested financial support for dental services for kids. So families with children from two to 17 years who received benefits, such as family tax benefit A, the parenting payment, the double orphan pension, a carer payment and other benefits, have been eligible for the child dental benefit, which provides around $1,000 over a two-year period to cover dental services like examinations, routine cleaning, fillings and even root canals. In its first two years of operation this scheme provided more than 9.7 million services, which were mainly delivered through private dentists and essentially bulk-billed to families at no extra cost. So it was a really successful scheme. In fact, the department's own evaluation of it was that it was a successful scheme. It will have changed the oral health of children, potentially for the rest of their lives, by getting them familiar with a dentist and hearing messages about teeth cleaning directly from a dentist, not just relying on a TV ad showing the back of a dentist while he's brushing his teeth. Many of us grew up with this ad as the ad that taught kids about brushing their teeth. But when you get to go to a dentist, you get to look a dentist in the eye, and they get to look you in the eye and talk to you about the best way that you, as a five-year-old or seven-year-old or 10-year-old, should be looking after your teeth.

It is exactly the sort of scheme or program that you'd think would have bipartisan support, especially when you see that today we're supporting an extension of this program to remove the barrier for the under-twos so that children of all ages can access it. But in 2016 the then federal health minister, Sussan Ley, revealed that in her view the scheme had failed to live up to expectations and that funds could be better spent elsewhere. This was after the Abbott government deliberately hid the scheme from parents and made it really hard to even know it existed—no promotion of it—so many who would have benefitted from it didn't know it existed. The Prime Minister announced a review. He decided to abolish the dental scheme and proposed a different, cheaper approach that relied on the states and territories to deliver services through public dental services. I think the kindest way to describe those state schemes back then would be as underresourced and overstretched. There were waiting times for the public dental schemes that ranged from 127 days in metropolitan Perth to 933 days in Tasmania; everywhere else had waiting times in between those. That's what the Liberals set out to do, and Labor opposed it.

I want to point out that at the same time there were also cuts to other dental services. This one was just the latest in a series of what I consider to be unforgivable decisions when it comes to dental care. The dental waiting lists were getting longer because $390 million—$390 million—was cut from adult public dental services across the country. On top of that they axed $225 million from Labor's program to build dental clinics in regional Australia and from nursing homes. That was on top of the $125.6 million that had been cut from the Child Dental Benefits Scheme. I had the good fortune at that time, around April 2016, to meet with Leura dentist Dr Rik Sandstrom, who is still practising there today. I talked to him about the work he'd done as a provider of the Child Dental Benefits Scheme. Two days prior to when I caught up with him he had seen four children as part of the scheme—kids who might otherwise not have been able to get to the dentist. When you're a mum and you've got a bunch of kids, sometimes it's kind of all or nothing. Families missed out on going to the dentist unless it was an absolute emergency. Rik's view then was that the scheme should be expanded to allow even more families who struggle to access it.

It wasn't until December 2016—and by that time I was a member of this place—that the minister announced the scheme would not be scrapped. That was a significant victory for Labor and the people who had supported the scheme. I am really pleased that now we are seeing a modest improvement to the scheme. Since Labor introduced the reform, it has provided extraordinary benefits—$2.3 billion in benefits—and delivered more than 38 million services to over three million Australian children. That means three million kids have avoided the worsening physical and mental health impacts from untreated dental conditions, with massive flow-on benefits for their families and their communities, including the government's bottom line avoiding downstream medical costs. It is a terrific Labor legacy. It is the sort of thing we do so well. It's a great example of what a government can do when it genuinely tries to make Australians' lives better—in this case, Australians in that low- to middle-income bracket who have kids.

The bill today is a welcome reform to the schedule, and Labor is supporting it. It extends the coverage to children from birth to 17 and removes that lower age limit on eligibility. The bill will help deliver a positive initial dental experience for more Australian kids now, at a younger age, and you always hope that puts to rest any of the negative feelings people have about dentists and oral hygienists. I'm under no illusions, though, that there are many adults who would wish to have the same access to basic dental services as these kids will. I support the amendment that we have moved, which really urges the government to do more to address access to dental and other health services, including GPs, especially in areas like mine—outer metropolitan areas. It also takes steps to further address out-of-pocket costs—not just for families with kids but for families, individuals and older people—because there are still huge cost barriers to people accessing the dental treatment that they really need.

I recognise that one of the things that often gets missed in the discussion is that there is a really strong argument that addressing poor oral health has multiple benefits on wellbeing and social connectedness, not to mention the links between oral diseases and cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and lung conditions, as well as the negative effect on pregnancies. My view is that the lack of access to affordable dental care increases the burden of disease, leading to bigger costs down the line. I would like to see more from this government. However, we are almost back where we were in 2012. We're investing in young people in the belief that it will benefit them, that it will instil good practices and that it will potentially reduce the pressures on the system for adults going forward.

As a result of this change, each year an additional 300,000 children between naught and two will become eligible. In practical terms that means, from next year, it's estimated around 15 per cent of the children in this new eligible age group will get access. You're going to hear this figure a lot in this debate: 45,000 children per year will now be able to, and hopefully will, access the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. That's 45,000 kids with better oral health, and better physical and mental health as a result. It means up to 45,000 families with fewer worries about being able to afford the dental care that they know their kids need and they want their kids to have. Hopefully, it means 45,000 kids with a better relationship and view of dentists, having been exposed to a dentist early in life. And hopefully that benefit flows through and we don't get dentist hesitancy. So I'm very pleased to support the amendment and this bill.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the support from the other side, from the member for Macquarie. The Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021 amends the Dental Benefits Act 2008 to remove the lower age eligibility restriction of two years so that all eligible children under 18 can access the Child Dental Benefits Scheme. This is an important step forward and one that is based on the recommendations of the report of the fourth review of the Dental Benefits Act 2008. The review, which included key stakeholders like the Australian Dental Association, state and territory dental health services, and Services Australia, found that it is important to establish a positive initial dental experience and to instil important oral hygiene practices at an early age to curb the negative stigma around dental practitioners and oral hygiene. This stigma is likely to be reinforced if the initial dental experience requires serious treatment. Good habits can last a lifetime. If parents promote the practice of good oral health hygiene with their children from a young age, this will help prevent more serious dental decay and other health issues as they grow up. I'm pleased to say that the change proposed in this bill will increase access to prevention and treatment services for younger children and help form these good oral hygiene habits in our kids.

It is estimated that the removal of lower age eligibility restrictions, as proposed in this bill, will expand the number of children eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule by around 300,000 per year. The budgeted cost is $5.4 million over four years. To me, this seems a fair price to pay to better fulfil the purpose of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule to ensure eligible Aussie kids will get access to basic dental care in a range of settings and locations. The Child Dental Benefits Schedule has been in operation since 2014 and, since that time, has provided over $2.3 billion in benefits and delivered more than $38 million in services to over three million Australian children. The scheme plays an important role in promoting the oral hygiene of children by providing access to basic dental services up to a capped amount of $1,013 in benefits over two calendar years. To expand this scheme in the proposed manner is a fiscally sensible but impactful change that will support the health of our kids.

Surely there have been many big-ticket health items unveiled by this government in the last few years, including record funding for hospitals, Medicare, mental health and aged care. Since 2013, the coalition government has also listed more than 2,600 medicines on the PBS, an average of one each day. This has put life-changing treatments within the reach of every Australian. All these are important, eye-catching policies and figures. But we have never lost sight of the sort of nuts and bolts, brass tacks reforms that are the stuff of good government. I don't think it will grab any headlines, but the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021 is another example of our commitment to ensuring that Australia's health system works for all Australians.

I've got two children, so I know it can be pretty tough being a parent, but I hope that these changes will make it just a little bit easier, both in their hip pockets and by assisting to form good lifelong oral hygiene habits in their kids. I'm proud to be part of the Morrison government, which is working with public and private providers to improve the delivery of dental services to Australia's children. So I fully support this amendment bill.

Debate adjourned.