Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

Senator McLucas, if you heard me, I said that this was not a partisan issue, but Mr Beattie has not done anything about it. He certainly has not enforced it. We should have done more and, quite frankly, that initiative alone would not only save a lot of money but also, far more importantly, would save a lot of pain, discomfort and agony for Queenslanders. It is a very minor thing that would cost very little, and yet we have not done it. It is not a partisan point but it is something we should have done, and I suspect even Senator Allison would agree with that. It is something we should do and we have not done.

Senator McLucas outlined the Labor Party’s proposal, which was recently enunciated by Mr Rudd, and spoke about waiting lists and how the Labor Party will assist in cutting down those waiting lists. Conceptually, that policy is quite incoherent. Let me say, by way of warning, that it is fiscal quicksand. The difference with the coalition policy is that our policy is conceptually coherent. We think that if someone’s dental health impacts upon their general health, which is ultimately the responsibility of Medicare, then the Commonwealth should provide for it. Nibbling away at the edges of waiting lists will not solve the problem. It will not make the states take responsibility and certainly will not solve the more general issue of chronic disease coming from bad oral care. That is the major problem.

I do not know what the Labor Party is on about here. Indeed, their proposal on dental care is not even as generous as the coalition proposal. It is quite an unusual proposal: not only is it less generous but also it nibbles away at the edges of a huge problem rather than engaging in a conceptually coherent policy, such as the coalition’s. The coalition’s policy is that, where oral health impacts upon general health, the Commonwealth will take responsibility.

Through the Health Insurance Amendment (Medicare Dental Services) Bill 2007, the Commonwealth government will provide substantial support to people with chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and complex care needs so that they can access dental treatment under Medicare. This will help to improve the oral health of those Australians with long-term serious illness. Passing this legislation will enable eligible Australians to access up to $4,250 in Medicare dental benefits over two consecutive calendar years. If this bill is passed, the new arrangements will commence from 1 November this year. Patients will be able to receive Medicare benefits for a comprehensive range of dental treatment, from diagnosis, preventative services and fillings to more complex treatments such as major restorative work. Older people requiring dentures will particularly benefit from these new arrangements.

The Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs has recently considered this bill and concluded that it is a ‘fundamentally important step in improving access to dental services and care for many Australians’. The committee recommended that this bill be passed. This Medicare initiative is a substantial investment in private dental treatment by the Commonwealth government of about $385 million over four years. It complements, but does not replace, state and territory governments’ responsibilities to provide public dental services.

I was listening carefully to what Senator Allison said before and I want to remind her that the new Medicare items complement other initiatives announced in the 2007-08 budget that are designed to increase access to dental treatment and support the dental workforce. These include investments in a new school of dentistry and oral health at Charles Sturt University, more rural clinical placements and dental scholarships for Indigenous students. The government has looked very closely at that. The new Medicare items complement other Commonwealth initiatives announced in this year’s budget. Together, these initiatives will strengthen dental care in Australia, and I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.