Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)   recognises the success of the Child Dental Benefits Scheme, which has provided access to dental care to children aged 2 to 17 since 2014;

(b)   notes:

(i)   That the broad exclusion of dental care from Australia's public health system causes hardship and poor patient outcomes for millions of Australians,

(ii)   that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, those living in rural and regional Australia and low income earners, have more than twice the rate of untreated dental decay as high income earners, and

(iii)   the ongoing delay of $1.3 billion in Commonwealth funding committed for state dental services under the National Partnership Agreement;

(c)   rejects the Government's recent cuts to Medicare-funded dental care, noting that 80 per cent of services are delivered through non-government practices; and

(d)   calls on the Government to address the inequity in dental health outcomes by committing to the expansion of Medicare-funded and state-funded dental care to all Australians over time.