Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (13:42): Our public dental health system is in absolute crisis, and it is worse in my area than in most, where patients waiting up to 18 months for service, well over the 12-month benchmark that exists in other areas – and even that is too long. There is more this government can do to address this situation. At present, for urgent work, we have the public sector issuing vouchers to the private sector. But it is a complete mess, and I will give you four reasons why. Firstly, the vouchers have a short end date, so by the time the private dentist gets to see this public patient, the voucher has expired. Secondly, when the work is done by the private practice, they have to wait months to be paid, sometimes up to eight months. This is not good enough, and no wonder they then do not want to see public patients. Thirdly, there is a price gap in the work to be done. If you want to get private dentists to do the work that the public dentist should, they need to be paid at the private rate, so often there is a pay gap that exists. And finally, if there is any discrepancy, the claim is denied. Is it any wonder private dentists are not taking on these patients. The minister needs to fix this and get it right.