Government moves to cut maximum benefits for children in existing scheme, but Labor and Greens say they will vote down changes

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Turnbull government has dumped the $1.7bn child and adult public dental scheme (CAPDS) proposed in its pre-election budget after it failed to get agreement from the states.

Instead the government has moved to cut the maximum benefits for children in the existing scheme by $300 over two years.

However the cut could be blocked in the Senate when parliament returns as Labor and the Greens have already committed to vote to disallow the changes. The opposing parties would need four crossbenchers to prevent the move.

The CAPDS was due to replace the $2.7bn child dental benefits schedule – set up in 2010 under the minority Labor government. It would have merged adults and children into one program. The CDBS was budgeted at $1.7bn over the following four years in the pre-election budget.



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But the legislation has never been presented to the Senate – despite passing the House – due to lack of support.

Before the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook statement on Monday and 10 days before Christmas, the health minister, Sussan Ley, announced new federal funding arrangements for dental services from 1 January.



The changes mean the maximum benefits available to eligible children under the CDBS will be cut from $1,000 to $700 over two years after the current two-year allocation runs out.

The minister said it reflected usage by families because most children were not claiming the full $1,000.



“The changes to the CDBS better reflect utilisation patterns, which indicate that most children are claiming well below the $1,000 cap,” Ley said.



For adult dental funding, the federal government will provide $320m over the next three years through the national partnership agreement.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service will receive $11m over two years to provide dental outreach services to rural and remote communities.

The shadow health minister, Catherine King, said the decision meant disadvantaged and vulnerable Australians would lose access to life-changing dental services and waiting lists would grow across the country.

“The funding allocated to the states and territories for public adult services is an insult when the Liberal government have ripped hundreds of millions out of adult public dental since 2013,” King said.

“Three million children will lose up to $300 in essential dental care due to Malcolm Turnbull’s decision today to rip hundreds of millions of dollars out of the children’s dental benefits schedule.”

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said it was just another way to balance the budget off the back of the most vulnerable.



“The decision to reduce commonwealth funding to the states for the provision of essential dental services to the most vulnerable in the community means that wait times at public dental clinics, which are already running into years, will only get longer and leave more patients at risk,” Di Natale said.



“The is another attempt by this government to balance the budget off the back of healthcare for the most vulnerable people in our society. Cutting the value of the child dental benefits schedule by $300 per child will significantly reduce the amount of dental care that Aussie kids can access.



“The Greens worked together with Labor to make this scheme a reality and now it is going to be up to the Greens and Labor to save it.”