Results Of National Survey Confirm Dental Care Rotten Under The Howard Government Julia Gillard - Shadow Minister for Health, Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives

Media Statement - 8 January 2004

The results of a nationwide survey have confirmed that many Australians fail to go to the dentist because they cannot afford it. Hawker Britton and UMR Research recently conducted a telephone survey of 1000 Australians. One of its key findings was that one-third of Australians in the $30 000 - $50 000 household income bracket who have not been to the dentist for over two years said it was due to their inability to pay.

Australians in this income bracket comprise the ‘working poor' and such neglect of their teeth will have awful consequences for them in later years. The now-defunct Commonwealth Dental Health Program, introduced by Labor, but abolished by the Howard Government as one of its very first acts in 1996, was extremely successful in the provision of dental care to people in lower income brackets.

The blowout in dental waiting lists following the abolition of the Commonwealth program was severe and immediate. In 1996, there were approximately 380 000 Australians waiting an average of 6 months for public dental care. By May 2000, that figure had blown out to half a million people waiting for between 8 months and 5 years for public dental care. Some people have been waiting for up to 40 months for dentures.

Despite increased expenditure from the States on public dental services since the program's abolition, the Constitution clearly states that the Commonwealth Government has a responsibility for dental health services, although both John Howard and Tony Abbott continue their ridiculous fiction that dental care is solely the domain of the States.