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

I proudly move:

(1) That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee into the Provision and Access of Dental Services in Australia, be established to inquire into and report on:

(a) the experience of children and adults in accessing and affording dental and related services;

(b) the adequacy and availability of public dental services in Australia, including in outer-metropolitan, rural, regional and remote areas;

(c) the interaction between Commonwealth, state and territory government legislation, strategies and programs in meeting community need for dental services;

(d) the provision of dental services under Medicare, including the Child Dental Benefits Schedule;

(e) the social and economic impact of improved dental healthcare;

(f) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis on access to dental and related services;

(g) pathways to improve oral health outcomes in Australia, including a path to universal access to dental services;

(h) the adequacy of data collection, including access to dental care and oral health outcomes;

(i) workforce and training matters relevant to the provision of dental services;

(j) international best practice for, and consideration of the economic benefit of, access to dental services;

(k) any related matters.

(2) That the committee present an interim report by Tuesday, 20 June 2023.

(3) That the committee present its final report by Tuesday, 28 November 2023.

(4) That the committee consist of five senators, as follows:

(a) two senators nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;

(b) two senators nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and

(c) one senator nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate.

(5) That:

(a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator;

(b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and

(c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

(6) That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

(7) That the committee elect as chair the member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens in the Senate and as deputy chair a member nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

(8) That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.

(9) That the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, may appoint another member of the committee to act as chair during the temporary absence of both the chair and deputy chair at a meeting of the committee.

(10) That, in the event of an equality of voting, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(11) That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of three or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.

(12) That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.

(13) That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

(14) That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Question agreed to.