Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

In August 2012 the Gillard Labor government introduced the Dental Health Reform Package to the Australian people. A key part of this package was the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, delivering means tested financial support for dental services for children between two and 17 years of age. Families that have children between two and 17 years old and receive benefits such as family tax benefit part A, the parenting payment, the double orphan pension, a carer payment and other benefits are eligible for the child dental benefit. It provides more than $1,000, over a two-year period, to cover dental services such as examinations, routine cleaning, fillings and root canals.

Since Labor introduced this reform, it has provided over $2.3 billion in benefits and delivered more than 38 million services to over three million Australian children. Thanks to this program, three million Australian children have avoided worsening physical and mental health impacts from untreated dental conditions, with massive flow-on benefits for their families, their communities and the broader Australian society—including the government's bottom line—from avoided downstream medical costs.

This was a great reform—under the Gillard government, and led by the member for Sydney who was then the health minister—and it's delivering great health outcomes to millions of children and teenagers across Australia. It was informed by a great amount of evidence presented by the dental advisory group that was chaired by the formidable former public servant Mary Murnane. It was also informed by some very disturbing evidence from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare—a great institution, the AIHW—which showed that as many as 42 per cent of five-year-olds had decay in their baby teeth, 61 per cent of nine-year-olds had decay in their baby teeth and, as a permanent feature of poor oral health, as many as 58 per cent of 14-year-olds had decay in their adult teeth.

The reform is a great demonstration of what a government focused on working to make Australians' lives easier can achieve. This bill represents an important extension of a great Labor legacy. But this is a legacy which, over eight long years of this government, has been threatened repeatedly by a Liberal Party that has never fully supported this reform. That threat is consistent with years of the Liberal Party's opposition to Labor's introduction of Medibank and then Medicare. The child dental benefits scheme was not immune from the Liberal Party's attempts to cut health services for Australians.

It remains in place due to the efforts of Labor—in particular, the member for Ballarat for having consistently fought attempts by this government over their eight long years to abolish or cut the scheme. It was when the current Prime Minister was Treasurer that the government intended to cut the scheme entirely. Labor successfully opposed that attempt to abolish the scheme. The Liberal government then brought before the parliament a proposal to cut, by 30 per cent, the payments that would be received by children and teenagers under the scheme. Rather than the $1,000 payment the scheme provides for, it was proposed by the current Prime Minister, who was Treasurer at the time, that this payment be cut to just $700. It's unbelievable. This attack on the dental benefits scheme was also successfully opposed by Labor, led by the shadow health minister, the member for Ballarat, Ms King. We are very glad the government hasn't persisted in attempts to cut or abolish this scheme and has now been converted to expanding its scope.

This bill represents a welcome reform to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule and Labor supports it as an extension of Labor's legacy. The bill extends coverage of the schedule to children from birth to 17 years of age, removing the lower age limit on eligibility. It is well known and accepted by parents that 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 deliver a positive initial dental experience for more Australian kids and help curb the unfortunate negative stigma around dental practitioners and oral hygiene.

As a result of this change, each year an additional 300,000 Australian children aged between zero and two will become eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. From 1 January 2022 it is estimated that each year 15 per cent of children in this newly eligible age group, 45,000 children per year, will now be able to and will access the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. That is 45,000 kids with better oral health and better physical and mental health as a result. It means up to 45,000 families will have fewer worries about being able to pay for the dental care their kids need. And it means 45,000 kids will have a better relationship, experience and view of dentists, having been exposed to a dentist early in life, with benefits flowing through the rest of their lives. That is why Labor supports this bill and commends it to the Senate.