Sparks fly over dental scheme

The Federal Government’s proposed dental scheme featured in a lively Budget-eve Question Time.

Shadow Health Minister Ms Catherine King asked the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, whether it was “better for kids to get easy access to check-ups from their local family dentist instead of spending years on public dental waiting lists.”

Health Minister Ms Sussan Ley responded on behalf of the Prime Minister, saying “that this is a public scheme that will matter to every public dental patient in Australia. It is a scheme that Labor could not get right. Every state government will have twice as much of their current funding locked in and legislated for the long term.”

Under the new scheme, children will usually only receive treatment if they attend public dental clinics. The previous scheme, the Child Dental Benefit Schedule, provided vouchers allowing children to see a private dentist.

Following Ms King (pictured) asking about $1 billion being cut from dental services, Ms Ley replied: “When you talk about $1 billion being removed from dental services, it is actually Labor's $1 billion. The scheme that they introduced, $4 million of which is now the subject of questions of rorting and misuse, only targeted one in three children.”

In the Senate, Greens Leader Senator Richard Di Natale asked that the Senate to recognise "that the broad exclusion of dental care from Australia’s public health system causes hardship and poor patient outcomes for millions of Australians."

The Australian Dental Association, the National Oral Health Alliance and other bodies have criticised the new scheme.