Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I cannot say that I am pleased to speak on the issue of dental health, but it is a very important issue and one that I raise again in the grievance debate this afternoon. A number of people from my constituency have travelled to Canberra to hear what I have to say today on this issue. In my capacity as a federal member I get a good opportunity to appreciate what governments at all levels can do to improve the health and wellbeing of people in the community. One of my greatest concerns—and, as I say, this is not the first time I have spoken on the issue—is the inability of many of my constituents to afford private dental treatment. They are in the position of not being able to access any preventative dental health and, even when they are in great pain, they often have to wait months to get access to urgently needed attention.

One of my constituents, Colin Yarwood, who is with us today, is a disability pensioner who was unable to face a three-month wait to have a diseased tooth pulled out. He solved the problem himself with the help of his own pliers and a medicinal dose of bourbon. As he recounted in our local paper:

I was in pain, it was indescribable and I couldn’t eat properly, but I was told there was a three month waiting list

In another recent article Donna Stewart talked about her two-year wait for attention to her teeth and gums. She recounted the story about her gums shrinking and her teeth being so loose that she pulled four teeth out with her fingers. A front tooth had fallen out on its own.

These are two examples, but they are the human face of the public dental crisis facing our nation. They are but two of the 7,586 people waiting for public dental work in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven region.

Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame!

Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame—that is right. They are but two of the half a million Australians on an ever-growing waiting list for public dental attention, each with their own stories of despair. Yet this government, the Howard government, with its record budget surplus, turns its back on these problems and engages in a typical blame game. ‘It’s not our responsibility,’ says Tony Abbott, ‘it’s the states’.’ But Mr Abbott knows full well that the Constitution recognises dental treatment as a legitimate medical treatment and one that clearly falls within the purview of a federal government.

That these appalling case studies can occur in a country as wealthy as ours is a shocking indictment of this government’s priorities. How can this government justify spending $50 million on a shonky IR publicity campaign, when it cannot find one cent to put into its responsibility for a national dental program? In an act of great hypocrisy I read that this government is planning to spend $143 million on health advertising, presumably in the hope of trying to convince the public that they are doing a great job. I know and we all know that this $143 million would be far better spent on producing real outcomes in reducing dental waiting lists and ending the suffering of so many people.

I am indebted to the hard work undertaken by members of the Illawarra Dental Health Action Group, who are in the gallery as I speak today. For the second time in the last few years they have made the trip to Canberra by bus, to again press their case for a national dental program. They were hoping to meet with the minister today but, much to my regret and theirs, the minister was too busy to meet them. But I am sure that they managed to table the petition with him—a petition that has been signed by almost 8,000 people. I have it here in the House. It is an indication of the active work on this critical issue undertaken by the Illawarra Dental Health Action Group. I thank them for not allowing this major issue to go unheeded. I am looking forward, I hope in the near future, to the Today Tonight program that came to the Illawarra to get first-hand case studies of the appalling neglect by the Howard government of the dental needs of people.

As I say, the minister refused to meet the group today, but he cannot wash his hands of this problem because the problem will not go away. Tooth and gum disease is a silent epidemic in our community. The government today is spending around $430 million a year subsidising dental care for those who can afford private health insurance, but at the same time it is turning its back on those most in need.

The lack of federal funding for public dental health is creating a huge divide between the rich and the poor. Australia now has the second worst adult oral health of all the OECD nations. Poor dental health impacts on other medical conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, respiratory ailments and cancer. A recent study conducted by the dental hospital in Sydney has again drawn links between poor oral health and the increased risk of heart failure and strokes. The decision by the Howard government to axe Labor’s national dental program cannot be defended on any grounds, let alone on financial grounds, because we all know that investing in public dental health will save the community and the government money in the longer term.

I am concerned that restrictions on the availability of dental services in the public system and the increased costs of private dental treatment will continue to result in huge problems of access. Who will be feeling these problems at the front line? It will be those who are aged, those who are poor and those who are in ill health. As subsidies for dental care of privately insured Australians grow year after year, the aged and the poor continue to wait for years—sometimes for up to five, six or seven years—to get treatment and attention in a system that is being deliberately run down.

The government today is spending in the order of $430 million a year subsidising dental care for people with private health insurance, but it is doing nothing at the federal level to assist those in greatest need. As funding cuts take their toll, subsidies for the oral health of privately insured Australians continue to grow. As I said, this is creating a huge divide between the rich and poor in our society. Low-income earners without private dental insurance are 25 times more likely than high-income earners with insurance to have to have all their teeth extracted. That one statistic says it all: low-income earners without private insurance are 25 times more likely to lose all their teeth than privately insured people. Professor Spencer, from Adelaide University, described the situation in the public dental system in the following terms:

You’re mopping up advanced level decay and people with considerable pain and serious infections. What these people go through is repeated cycles of emergency care with teeth extracted.

So there are no funds for preventative medicine; preventative dental treatment is off the list. In my area, people are told that, even when their gums are swollen and bleeding and they are in acute pain, they cannot necessarily see a dentist within a period of several months. It is absolutely criminal that in a country as rich as ours this situation can continue.

We all know the difference that a national program can make. The states have a responsibility to pay their fair share, but that does not absolve the federal government from playing its part. As I said, $52 million for the IR campaign; $143 million, we are told, to extol the virtues of the wonderful things the government is doing in the health area; but not one cent or one dollar for public dental needs—and we know the difference that Labor’s program made.

In 1997 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that, in the first two years of the national program, eligible Australians who received public dental care visited the dentist more frequently, reported less frequent experiences of toothaches, received fewer extractions and were more satisfied with the care they received. Very importantly, waiting times were substantially reduced. For a small investment from the Commonwealth government, we saw a huge drop in waiting lists. The numbers of patients waiting for 12 months or more decreased from over 20 per cent to 11.3 per cent and those waiting for less than a month increased from 47.5 per cent to 61.5 per cent. So it did make a difference. The case for the reintroduction of a Commonwealth funded dental program is compelling. The government should get its priorities right and ensure that money—(Time expired)