ALP response to VOHA

The Victorian Labor 2006 Election Campaign office today sent the following message to VOHA in response our oral health policy platform. To date this is the only party to have formally communicated its package of oral health policies directly to the Alliance.

"The Bracks Labor Government has increased public dental health funding by providing a record $103.6 million over the last two State Budgets. This additional funding has been used to treat more patients and improve access for children and the disadvantaged.

We have boosted dental health infrastructure increasing the number of community dental chairs by 66 per cent since coming to office in 1999.

This additional investment in dental health has seen the waiting lists for general dental health care reduced by more than 60 per cent over the past eighteen months. More than 200,000 Victorians received public dental care in 2005/06, an increase of 17,000 on the previous year.

There is a critical shortage of dentists, particularly in rural Victoria because the Federal Government has failed to train enough dentists in our universities.

To increase the number of dentists in rural Victoria, a re-elected Bracks Government will work with La Trobe University to establish a new dental school in Bendigo. The $14.45 million initiative will build a teaching laboratory in Bendigo and establish an additional 30 dental chairs in new dental teaching clinics in Wodonga, Mildura and at the new Melton Day Hospital."

Oral health policy commitments of other parties appear on the VOHA website - where these have been published or otherwise made available.