The Australian federal budget has drawn criticism for disproportionately cutting funding to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) while largely ignoring the country's dental care crisis. According to economist Greg Jericho, the NDIS faced an 11% real-term cut, the largest reduction in the budget, yet conservative media and opposition parties have focused on tax changes affecting wealthy individuals.
Jericho highlights that nearly two-thirds of Australians who delay dental visits do so due to cost, compared to 29% for GP visits. Despite this, the government has not included dental care in Medicare, which the Parliamentary Budget Office estimates would cost about $13.6 billion this financial year—less than the $17 billion a potential gas export tax could raise.
The author notes that 14% of Australians avoid the dentist entirely, versus just 1% for GPs. He argues that the lack of media outcry over NDIS cuts and dental inequality reflects a warped national priority system, where the wealthy's concerns dominate while the most vulnerable suffer.
Jericho, a father of a child with Down syndrome, expresses personal worry about service cuts that improve his daughter's life. He criticises misleading articles suggesting families with disabled children must overhaul finances due to trust tax reforms, noting that special disability trusts were explicitly exempted.
