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

My question is for the Minister representing the Minister for Health. On 31 December this year—only 30 days away—Commonwealth funding for public dental services to the state and territories through the national partnership agreement will expire. So here we are on the last day of parliament, and the minister today has made no public commitment whatsoever in relation to what the government intends to do to ensure that Australians continue to have access to these vital public dental services. So will the minister now take the opportunity to explain what funding will be in place beyond the end of this year; and will she give an assurance that there will not be any cuts to public dental funding?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question and for some notice of the topic. I can advise the chamber that the advice that I have received is that the minister will be making some announcements about the future funding in the near future as part of broader reforms.

What I can indicate to the chamber is that we propose some very sensible changes relating to dental reform. Under the Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme, we were going to see all children under 18, 5.3 million children, and adults with concession cards, five million adults, able to access a new scheme. We wanted to move away from the old scheme, the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, because it failed to reach a significant number of children. Only one in three of the eligible children were treated. It was only used by a third of the three million children that had been promised by Labor. There are $4 million worth of incorrect claims under investigation.

What we have been trying to do is to put in place a scheme that was better. That scheme was going to give states certainty for the first time by enshrining that in legislation, and that certainty, as we all know, for the states and territories is very important.

The senator does raise the question, clearly, about 31 December. I can indicate that an announcement will be made in the near future, but it is very clear that what we were trying to do—and had there been agreement from the other side, we could already have in place that Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme, which was going to provide better outcomes for people across the country in relation to dental.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, a supplementary question.

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

Given that we are here today on the last day of parliament and the minister has refused to make any commitment to guarantee ongoing funding, can we assume that the minister is trying to avoid the scrutiny of this parliament in an effort to ensure that cuts made to public dental services do not get the scrutiny of the parliament?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I reject that categorically: it would not be appropriate to assume that in any way, shape or form. Clearly, this is a situation for the minister where she has to discuss the broader reforms with states and territories about the best way forward. So it is certainly not the case that you should assume that; it is the case, however, that those opposite, the Greens and those others opposite would realise that there are negotiations taking place to get a better outcome for people across the country, particularly those children and those on concessional arrangements, who would get great benefit out of the new scheme. If only that had been agreed to at the time, we could have already had this in place and we would have better outcomes for those people.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, a final supplementary question.

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

The minister rightly indicated that certainty was necessary to enable dental clinics to plan their programs, to recruit staff and to provide assurances to patients about services. How on earth is not making any public commitment 30 days from when a program is set to expire providing those public dental services with the certainty that you quite rightly say they need?

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That certainty could have been provided some time ago, if it had been agreed. Clearly, as I have already outlined, the benefits would have been there in moving to that system; however, as I understand it, negotiations are still underway.

I do understand that the minister is in discussions with those opposite about those broader reforms and I do find it very unfortunate that Senator Di Natale should stand today complaining about a lack of appropriate timeliness when this could have been dealt with long before now—moving to what people would recognise would be a much more beneficial scheme for the people that it is intended to help as opposed to, as I outlined in my first response, the great deficiencies in the current Child Dental Benefits Schedule, which would have been alleviated by moving to the coalition government's policy.