Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a question for the minister concerning the $515.3 million investment in dental health. About two years ago, I met a man at Telopea station, who came up quite embarrassed. He was a reasonably attractive man of about 40, very lively, but incredibly embarrassed because he had four front teeth missing. The bridge that he had had for 12 years had broken and he had been without it for nearly a year. It had no doubt affected his life. He was unprepared to invite anyone out on a date, he had not worked in all that time—he was too embarrassed to apply for work—and he was finding it very difficult to eat. Anything that had to be bitten through was not an option for him. We managed to help him. About six months later I bumped into him again and he was in a relationship and he was working. His life had profoundly turned around, simply because he could access something that, for many Australians, is a normal thing—good dental care—but for many others is not.

Since the axing of the Commonwealth dental scheme in the first days of the Howard government, there are more and more people in exactly that circumstance, whose lifestyle, self-image, employment prospects and health are dramatically affected. I have met people in my electorate who, while on waiting lists, have spent unacceptably long periods of time on painkillers while they wait for their emergency dental treatment.

Minister, I was pleased to welcome you on the visit to the Westmead Centre for Oral Health. It is undoubtedly one of the best public dental hospitals in the country. I have to say, compared to the way it was about six years ago, it is good to see it completely refurbished and full of people doing some quite good-quality training. This government, over the last four years, has slowly been building that dental workforce. I noticed when some of the announcements were made in the last couple of budgets that we were preparing, in a sense, for something larger along this line.

There are many challenges, as were raised by some of the people at the Westmead Centre for Oral Health. I am wondering, in your consultation, what challenges you see that we face, and how you expect to be able to address issues such as regional disadvantage and staffing issues.

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