Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Urquhart for her continuing interest in this portfolio of health. The Gillard government believe that we have a responsibility to ensure Australians who are least able to afford to go to the dentist can do so. This is particularly the case when it comes to children. Medicare has been a basic right for Australians for decades, yet millions of people in this country still go without adequate dental care. Poor childhood oral health leads to poor adult oral health and has wide-ranging impacts on general health and wellbeing, leading to a greater strain on our health and hospitals system now and into the future. Labor's dental health reform package will deliver a better system of dental health care for Australians that is accessible, affordable and focuses on prevention. Labor's dental health reform package will provide for around 1.4 million additional dental services for low-income adults. Labor's dental health reform over the next six years includes $2.7 billion to ensure that more than three million children will be eligible for government subsidised dental care, in the same way they are now entitled to Medicare funded GP visits, and $1.3 billion for additional services for an additional 1.4 million adults on low incomes, including pensioners and concession card holders and those with special needs. There is $225 million for dental capital to support expanded services for people living in outer metropolitan, regional and rural and remote areas so that Australians, regardless of where they live, have access to high-quality dental care. In addition to the new dental measures, the government will continue to deliver on current investments in dental health. We have delivered practical improvements to dental care like subsidising around 1.6 million dental check-ups for teenagers— (Time expired)