Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's frankly madness that Australia doesn't already have dental under Medicare. It's deeply disappointing that this Labor government refuses to expand Medicare to cover dental care. We know that in one year 2.3 million Australians skipped or delayed seeing the dentist because they couldn't afford to pay for it. In a cost-of-living crisis, we know that there are millions of Australians right now already struggling to pay the rent and already skipping meals. If they do have a tooth infection, a toothache or oral health problems, right now they have to skip seeing the dentist because for some reason our public health system doesn't cover one of the major components, and often one of the most important components, of our health and health care.

In one year, in 2021, 20,000 Queenslanders were admitted to hospital because of preventable oral health and dental health problems. We know that 44 per cent of low-income older residents often skip seeing the dentist because they can't afford to pay.

It is unacceptable that in a wealthy country like Australia, where fossil fuel corporations get away with making billions of dollars in revenue and often paying zero dollars in tax, this government can't find it within itself to raise taxes on big corporations and billionaires and use that to fund covering dental under Medicare. If this government really cared about Medicare, the way to defend it would be to expand it to cover every part of our body.

What is the rational reason why our Medicare doesn't cover oral health? If you chat to any emergency ward nurse or anyone in the public hospital system, they'll tell you that they see people being admitted to ER wards with oral health infections, tooth infections, tooth abscesses and heart conditions that are caused as a result of not being able to afford to go to the dentist and get a cheap check-up.

The reality is that, if we did bring dental under Medicare, it would save funding over the long term for the government because preventive health—making sure people can go and get a check-up or go and get that tooth filling rather than waiting a couple of years and going to the emergency ward with a massive tooth abscess and infection and, potentially, heart disease as a result of not being able to go there—is a lot cheaper to the public health system than an admission to the emergency ward.

We know that in 2010, with the balance of power, the Greens were able to get dental into Medicare for kids—3.4 million kids. The next time the Greens have the balance of power—potentially after the next election—the next thing we're going to fight for is making sure every Australian in this country has dental under Medicare and can go to the dentist and get a check-up for free.