Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

I rise to speak today on the Health Insurance Amendment (Medicare Dental Services) Bill 2007.

In 1996, the Howard Government scrapped Labor’s Commonwealth Dental Health Program.

Effectively, this took $100 million per annum away from public dental services. Public dental waiting lists have now blown out to 650,000 people around the country.

Of particular concern to me is the sharp deterioration in dental health standards among people with low incomes The rising cost of dental care is a major cost of living issue for families.

The statistics demonstrate this very clearly: One in three Australians avoid going to the dentist because of the cost.

The states and territories have doubled their funding for public dental care since the CDHP was abolished, yet the Howard Government have consistently asserted that the states are to blame.

It’s high time the Howard Government stopped the blame game with the states and took some real responsibility for the health needs of Australians.

Australians are in dire need of a solution to this problem ... There are 50,000 hospital admissions for preventable dental conditions every year. 1 in 6 Australians have avoided certain foods because of problems with their teeth in the last year.

The Government’s announcement in the 2007 budget to put 377 million dollars into the expansion of its dental program will do very little to address the public dental waiting lists and will be nothing to make dental care more affordable for everyday Australians battling with the rising costs of petrol, interest rates, and childcare.

The Howard Government has neglected dental workforce issues.

Kevin Rudd on the other hand has a vision for Australia. He understands we need to stop the blame game and deliver positive health outcomes for Australians.

Fixing our dental crisis goes beyond throwing money at the industry. We need to look at the long term—how many dentists do we need, and how will we train them.

In the year 2000 there were 49.9 dentists per 100,000 population. This is a disgrace. In my home state of Tasmania, the figures are worse... just 29.8 dentists per 100,000 people. Australia was ranked 19th in terms of practising dentists per 100,000 population out of 29 OECD countries for which data was available. A disgraceful ranking.

Furthermore, the distribution of dentists is very uneven, with particular shortages in the NT and as I mentioned before, my home state of Tasmania.

Between 1989-90 and 1998-99 dental fees increased at rates substantially higher than the CPI and other health services: between 1989-90 and 1998-99 dental service prices increased by 50.8 per cent, while the increase in health prices over the same period was only 22 per cent.

There are only six dental schools in Australia—one each in NSW, Victoria, WA and South Australia, and two in Queensland. The University of Griffith only commenced taking dental students in 2004.

I oppose this bill.