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

The dental inquiry went right to the heart of the cost-of-living crisis. So many in our community are suffering or have loved ones who are suffering because of their inability to access oral health care. Dental health care in this country is not universal. You can't use your Medicare card to get access to the care that you need. Oral health care and dental health care is based on class. How much money have you in your bank account? How much debt can you take on? These are the barriers to accessing oral and dental health care. These are the barriers that sit between you and getting the health care that you need. When it comes to dental and oral health care in Australia, what matters is your bank card, not your Medicare card. This is a complete Americanisation of a part of our healthcare system, and it is leaving so many without the care that they need.

Politicians in this place may well try to brush this reality away. Doing so has severe consequences: heart disease, systemic infection, chronic pain and tens of thousands of preventable emergency room admissions. We have thousands of Australians who cannot find $250 at any single moment. That is the average cost of seeing the dentist. Australians expect that health care is available for free for those who need it when they need it most. This expectation is not being met. Both major parties have overseen the Americanisation of our healthcare system and the gutting of its core value of universal access.

The Australian Greens want to change that. We have a plan to make dental care free. You would be able to go to your dentist using only your Medicare card. Parents will no longer have to choose between food on the table and getting their kids to the dentist, between braces and books, or ending up in the emergency room when they could have just seen the dentist. The simple truth is: nothing changes if nothing changes. The major parties in this place do not care about getting people to see the dentist. We must show them at the ballot box that we want free and universal dental care. That means voting for the Greens to kick out the duopoly of the Liberal and Labor parties.

Debate adjourned.