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

Pursuant to contingent notice, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Senator Di Natale moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion relating to an amendment to Senator Williams's motion on dental services.

It is remarkable, utterly remarkable, that a senator in this chamber would be denied leave to amend a motion put forward by a member of the government. The consistent practice in this place has been to at least give members of this chamber the opportunity to move amendments to the motion, provided they are circulated within good time. And, of course, there's the opportunity for members of the government—and indeed members of the opposition—to not support those amendments. That is accepted current practice in this chamber.

Senator Williams has decided he wants to move a motion relating to the Australian Dental Association's Dental Health Week. We think that's very important. We think it's absolutely critical that here, in this chamber, we come together and debate what is the appropriate public policy response to improving the oral health of all Australians. Senator Williams is absolutely right: 16 per cent of Australians say they don't visit a dentist because they're too busy. More importantly, close to half of all Australians don't visit a dentist because they cannot afford it. There are 65 per cent of Australians who have not visited the dentist in more than two years, and cost is an enormous factor. That's why the Australian Greens put forward an amendment to the motion proposed by Senator Williams, which reflects the fact that this government cut $300 million a year from the National Partnership Agreement on Adult Public Dental Services, drastically reducing access to dental care for the many millions of Australians who rely on these services. It's absolutely critical, too, to point out to Senator Williams, who's out there championing the government's approach to oral health, that, in fact, what we saw was a cut to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule after this government tried to abolish it altogether.

One of the things we Greens are very proud of is that, in the term of the Labor government, with the support of the Greens and the Independents, through a process, a significant funding boost to all Australians of over $2 billion for Medicare-funded dental care for children was established. This was a negotiation that we were involved in, a negotiation that had our strong backing, and it meant that, for the first time ever, we had Medicare-funded dental care offered to Australians in this country. For the first time ever a young person could go to the dentist and get that service provided using their Medicare card, because we've always said that Australians should be able to go and see the dentist in the same way as they are able to go and see a doctor.

Our view is that we should have a universal dental system. Yet we saw this government try on numerous occasions to abolish that scheme altogether and say to young people within the community, 'You can't access Medicare-funded dental care.' When they realised they couldn't get that through the parliament, they dishonestly took all the information off their own website and tried to pretend to the Australian community that they could no longer access those services. Time and time again through Senate estimates we asked the department why they were giving false information about the closure of that scheme, and the information we were given was that it was because the government's intention was to close it, despite not having the support of the Senate. Then, last year, the government said it would cut the $1,000 cap by $300 and make it a $700 cap. It failed in its attempt to do this on many occasions. This is an appalling attempt from this government to hide a record on oral health that it should be absolutely ashamed of. When you consider the increase in public dental waiting lists because of the cut to the national partnership agreement, tens of thousands of Australians now have to wait for months and sometimes years to get basic treatment: fillings, dentures and other preventive treatment.

Senator Williams, rather than denying this chamber the opportunity to vote on an amendment to your motion and have it put on the public record, rather than using process to stymy a debate, you should have the guts to allow us to do our job. You should make sure that your record is highlighted.