Billionaires could soon be footing the bill for Australians to visit the dentist under a new plan aimed at fixing the nation’s oral health.
In an address to the National Press Club, Greens leader Adam Bandt will make his pitch to voters as his party seeks to gain the balance of power in the next parliament.
Under the proposal, access to bulk billed general dental care would be expanded to all Australians with a Medicare card.
It would cost the budget bottom line $8bn a year, or $77bn over the next decade, axjmtzywnd be funded by increasing taxes paid by billionaires and multinationals.
“The money is there to pay for these plans if we have the guts to take on the billionaires and big corporations,” Mr Bandt will say.
“The Greens will make Clive Palmer pay more tax so you can fix your teeth.”
His pitch comes days after the Australian Dental Association sounded the alarm about oral health outcomes in elderly Australians.
The ADA says one in four older Australians have untreated tooth decay and more than half have gum disease.
Poor oral healthcare is associated with and can contribute to cardiovascular disease, strokes, diabetes and cancers.
The average wait time for public dental services is 12 months.
In 2019, Labor made an election commitment to give older Australians and low income earners $1000 worth for free dental care every two years. However, it has yet to re-endorse the policy.
More recently, the government expanded funding for an additional year of adult public dental services, but has not committed to a wider proposal this campaign.
Mr Bandt has previously said he believes both major parties will struggle to form a government in their own right after the May poll.
In the lower house, his party is targeting Labor-held Macnamara, Griffith and Richmond and Liberal-held Brisbane and Ryan.
It also hopes to pick up three extra Senate seats across Queensland, NSW and South Australia to boost its representation from nine to 12 in the upper house.
Mr Bandt will say expanding general dental care – in addition to action on coal and gas mines and legislating billionaires’ tax – were key priorities of the Greens if it obtains the balance of power.
“Last time the Greens were in the balance of power we got dental into Medicare for kids, and now we’ll finish the job by getting dental into Medicare for everyone.”
