Dental Care not a priority on Budget Day in Australia

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Despite persistent calls for greater focus on dental care in Australia, the government will not make dental services a priority, it has been revealed.

The Labor government is set to delay an announcement on dental care and will instead make mental health services a priority. Health minister Nicola Roxon admitted that mental health care has been neglected for several years and accepts that many people have been let down by the current system.

News of further neglect of dental care will anger dentists and members of the Green party, who agreed to form a coalition government with Labor on the grounds that they established a universal dental system. The Labor party claims that there is not enough money available to fund the dental reforms; they said that the natural disasters earlier this year have made the reforms an impossible dream.

Dentists in Australia have been campaigning for more investment in dental services for many years now; access to dental care is poor, especially in rural and remote areas, where waiting times can be well over 12 months.

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