Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to talk about the crisis in dental health in this nation. More than half a million Australians are being forced to wait up to five years to get their teeth fixed in what has become a national outrage. The Howard government’s abandonment of the public dental health system in 1996 has created too many horror stories that can no longer go untold. Currently, there are 650,000 Australians who have a whole lot to complain about, but their poor dental health sees many of them unable to speak or too embarrassed to speak out. The Labor Party and I will continue to fight for the Howard government to meet its responsibility in this area.

What kind of society do we live in where a policy of abandoning public dental health is accepted and, whenever questions or complaints about the state of our dental health system arise, the leaders of this country deny responsibility, telling Australians that it is a matter for the states? Dental health is not just a state issue. Section 51 of the Constitution—the highest law in Australia—gives the federal government responsibility for dental health. It is about time for the government to stop shirking its responsibility and start investing in Australia’s dental health.

When the Howard government abolished the program in 1996, there were 380,000 Australians waiting an average of six months for public dental care. Now, we have some 650,000 Australians waiting an average of five years. I was contacted recently by a constituent who is unemployed and missing several teeth. This man desperately wants to work and believes that his dental problem creates a bad impression at job interviews and, at the very least, massively affects his self-confidence. This man does not have the $5,000 he has been told he needs for a private dentist to fix his teeth, and he has now been in the queue to see a public dentist for more than 18 months. It is unlikely he will reach the front of the queue for some time. I have met with pensioners who are either in need of dentures or desperately need to have their existing dentures refitted. They have told me how they feel forgotten and neglected and how they have trouble eating and speaking whilst they wait on ridiculously long lists.

The provision of dental services is one of the basic services of a civilised society. We are a prosperous country and a country that prides itself on the notion of egalitarianism, yet we abandon the elderly and the disadvantaged in such a cruel fashion. I will continue to fight for the Howard government to meet its responsibility in this area. We need a national public dental system and we need a strategy to address a critical shortage of dentists and therapists. Dental health treatment is an essential element of the overall health system and it must be accessible to all Australians. I will continue to circulate the petitions, which people are lining up to sign in my electorate, and we will continue to pressure the Howard government to stop letting down Australians in this matter.