Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (09:51): The Victorian Labor government’s latest $230 million announcement has all the hallmarks of a big, desperate promise before an election. Labor calls it free dental, but nobody believes it is free. Victorian taxpayers will be paying a $230 million bill for it. After more than a decade of Labor, people in South-West Coast are already facing dental waitlists of more than three years, so before Labor promises dental care to every Victorian, there is a pretty basic question: who is going to provide it? The Australian Dental Association has raised exactly that concern, warning that public dental without dentists could increase wait times significantly. The public dental system is only treating 15 per cent of the patients now. With the $230 million budget it has, Labor says it will establish 10 clinics – seven in Melbourne and three across regional Victoria – treating more than 100,000 people a year. That is impossible. It has not even said where these regional clinics will be.

South-West Coast has heard big promises from Labor before. We were promised a PET scanner – still not delivered. We were promised the Warrnambool Base Hospital redevelopment, only to see delays and what the community was promised cut back. Before the last election we also had the promise of the Commonwealth Games; we all know how that ended. Perhaps Labor is hoping for the tooth fairy to deliver the dentists as well, because after a decade of broken promises South-West Coast knows the difference between a Labor announcement and something getting delivered.