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

This week we see the government celebrating 10 years in office. For many Australians it is not a celebration but a commiseration. I am going to concentrate on just one area today—that is, dental care. It is a good area to concentrate on because the Howard government acted on dental care policy as one of its first acts in government in 1996, when it abolished federal funding for public dental programs. So after 10 years we can see the full effect of the Howard government’s policy on dental care: over half a million people in Australia are waiting for dental care as a result of this policy introduced in 1996.

Even worse than the numbers is the growing inequality in dental care. Studies by the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council show that children in poor groups now have twice as many rotten teeth as those in wealthy groups. While the majority of people in Australia  have no decay and on the whole our dental health is quite good, 20 per cent of the population has 80 per cent of the disease—a clear disparity between those at the wealthier end of society and those at the poorer end. It is particularly bad for children, with less than half of eligible children getting treatment in the 2004 year. There has been a sharp rise in the number of children needing emergency care after mild toothaches which did not receive treatment developed into very serious medical conditions. In fact, the number of children admitted to hospital for the removal or restoration of teeth has doubled since the Howard government came to office. It has doubled over the past decade. Children put under general anaesthetic in New South Wales alone number more than 100 per month. That is children going into hospital and being put under a general anaesthetic because they did not get the treatment they needed early enough and their conditions became incredibly serious.

The picture is also worse for adults. Low-income adults without private dental insurance are 25 times more likely to have had all their teeth extracted than high-income adults with insurance. Those figures are provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Dental Statistics and Research. They are 25 times more likely to have all their teeth extracted than people in the wealthier areas of society. Without support for dental health, we have seen a clear and growing divide between the rich and the poor in this country over the 10 years of this government.

But this government actually does put money into dental care: through the private health rebate—a scheme we heard praised today in the parliament and over and over again during the week. It is an interesting scheme in that it subsidises the wealthier end of society for dental services to a greater extent than it subsidises the poor. Those of us who can afford to have cosmetic dentistry, to have caps and to go back for good maintenance receive a significantly higher subsidy than those at the poor end of the scale, if they can get in at all.

It is extraordinary that, over the 10 years of the Howard government, we have seen $100 million ripped out of dental health for the poor and poured into dental health for the rich. What kind of country are we when we see people at the poor end of society losing their teeth at 25 times the rate of others because we have ripped out the subsidy for them and given it to the wealthier end of society?

It is about time this government stopped playing the blame game: blaming the states and claiming that dental health is not a federal responsibility.

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It’s not.

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

It clearly is. It is in the Constitution as a federal responsibility. Up until 1997 the Commonwealth government did fund it, otherwise you would not have had to abolish it.

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Secker interjecting

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

The Commonwealth was funding it; that is why you had to abolish it. You decided to make it not a federal responsibility, you decided to walk away, and now you are again blaming the states for your decision. Not only that, you do fund dental health, so clearly it is a federal responsibility. You fund it for the wealthy. You fund it through the private health rebate. You fund dental health care. So do not sit there and say it is not a federal responsibility when you actually do fund it.

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Secker interjecting

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

It is about time you bit the bullet with your well-funded, private health insured teeth and gave some assistance to the poor in this country, whose dental health has been deteriorating every day under the 10 years of this government.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It would help the chair if the member for Parramatta would address her remarks through the chair.