Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] The Greens support this bill, the Dental Benefits Amendment Bill 2021; however, we believe that this bill could go much further to enable more members of our community to access dental care under Medicare. I want to flag at the outset of my contribution that we will be moving an amendment to this bill which seeks to expand access to the Child Dental Benefits Scheme. Our amendment would remove eligibility criteria and allow children and adults to access free dental care when and where they need it.

Before I go any further, it's really important to place the legislation before us in its proper context: the scheme that it seeks to modify and the overall question of publicly funded dental care. The 'Denticare' scheme, as it is commonly known in the community, is a proud Greens achievement. It is a legacy of a period of power-sharing between 2010 and 2013, and it is a program that I am really proud of personally and that I know has done so much good for members of our community. It seeks to address at its core one of the great gaps in our publicly funded medical system. We can be really proud of the Medicare system here in Australia. It is one of the better public health systems in the world BUT it suffers from a really nonsensical gap, which is to say that it looks at the human body and takes into account the fact that most human beings will need some kind of publicly funded health support for most parts of our bodies, including our mental health. And yet, when it comes to the teeth, our publicly funded medical system suddenly doesn't seem to register the existence of the mouth on the human body—it doesn't cover it in any great or meaningful way. That is a disconnect that means that many in our community are not able to get the support they need for a basic, ongoing medical need—that is, good, high-quality dental care.

The Denticare scheme which currently exists gives people an ability to access publicly-funded dental care between the ages of two and 18. The amendment we are moving before the Senate today seeks to change the eligibility criteria to enable people between the ages of zero and 18 to access publicly-funded dental treatment. And that is a good thing: people should be able to use their Medicare card to go to the dentist, just like they can for so many other vital procedures and health based supports. But we can't stop there. The reality is that the teeth are not things that spring into existence between the ages of two and 18 and then vanish for the rest of people's lives! Dental care and dental based supports are things which are needed through the entirety of someone's life. That is the reality, and our policy settings should meet that reality. We should enable all people to access affordable dental care under the Medicare system. They should be properly funded and supported to get that work, that support and those services, because we know the transformational impacts for people who have access to those supports and, conversely, the terrible impact of not being able to access those supports. And that is so much the case for so many in our community.

To drill down in a little bit more detail on this, there's been a recent survey in the electorate of Griffith where people have had the opportunity to share the impact that the currently very constricted system has on them—basically, what impact does the absence of publicly funded dental care under Medicare have on people's lives? The results are really quite stark, and I think they paint a clear picture of the problem here and the impact on people.

Some 86 per cent of respondents had delayed seeing a dentist because of cost. The average amount that people spent just on their most recent dental bill was $809. That is the best part of $1,000. That is not money that most people just have lying around. It has a real financial impact on individuals, families and communities. In this survey, the longest period that a respondent had skipped seeing a dentist because of cost was some 20 years. Can you imagine what it feels like to sit in agony with an unresolved dental issue for two decades?

It is beyond belief that, in 2021, in Australia, with all of its riches that are so effectively siphoned off by corporate Australia and the billionaire class, we have a publicly funded healthcare system which does not recognise the basic reality that people have teeth which need to be cared for. It is an absolute disgrace that this is the reality in 2021.

The amendment offered by the Greens today gives both sides of politics, Labor and the Liberal Party, the opportunity to join with the Greens to correct this problem—to give people access to the support that they need and to make sure that nobody has to endure the terrible pain and discomfort that comes from poor dental health—so that every child, every teenager, adult and older Australian is able to get access to dental support and dental care when and where they need it, without having to worry about whether they have enough money saved in the bank to enable them to do it.

We know that this will have so many good, positive effects on our community. We know that it will support people being active in the community. We know that it will support people pursuing different career paths and goals, doing different types of work, being active members of their community and living life free of pain, which should be the basic expectation of all people in our community.

These changes can be so easily funded by making the big corporate entities that have made billions, if not tens of billions, through the course of this pandemic pay their fair share of tax. At the same time, we can make sure that we do not waste tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, of dollars on unnecessary defence expenditures and on tax measures which seek to put more money in the hands of people like Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. All these things are possible.

The amendment before the Senate today enables the Labor and Liberal parties to get on board with the position which the Greens have been advocating for decades which is that Medicare should cover your mouth. You should be able to get support for your dental health through Medicare regardless of your age. You should be able to do so in a way that enables you to think solely about the medical support you need, not what the current balance of your bank account is. I commend the amendment to the Senate.