Explore our Plan
- Put dental into Medicare
-
Been putting off going to the dentist? You’re not alone. Too many Australians cannot access the dentist because it is too expensive, and most people are not eligible for public dentistry.
The Greens have long advocated expanding access to dental care – because health care shouldn’t stop at your neck. In 2012, we secured dental into Medicare for kids, and in the last term of Parliament, we conducted the first Senate Inquiry into access to dental care in Australia.
The Greens' plan:
- Ensure affordable dental care for all Australians by including dental services in Medicare with a $195 billion investment, reducing dental disease, preventing related health issues, and easing cost of living pressures.
- See the GP for free
-
We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, and people across Australia are making tough decisions about spending money on healthcare, rent or putting food on the table.
The Greens believe that everyone should be able to access healthcare when they need it. The Greens want to get back to a system where you can go to the GP without paying out-of-pocket costs, and we want a universal healthcare system that is free and accessible to all Medicare card holders.
The Greens have a plan to ensure that everyone can access free GP appointments when they need them.
The Greens' plan:
- Increase access to bulk-billing appointments by boosting incentives to GPs with a $21.5 billion investment, including tripling bulk-billing incentives and raising Medicare patient rebates for longer appointments.
- Provide free healthcare by setting up 1,000 free healthcare clinics across Australia, giving people access to GPs, dentists, nurses, and mental health professionals with no out-of-pocket costs through a $31.7 billion investment.
- Support the future of General Practice by closing the pay gap for trainee GPs with $900 million in grants to ensure fair pay and better opportunities for development.
- Mental health into Medicare
-
Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Things are stressful right now: if you’re worried about the cost of living, housing and climate crisis you’re not alone. Thecost of living crisis is both making health worse and causing an increasing number of people across Australia to delay or miss out on essential mental health care.
The Greens have an ambitious plan to enable everyone to get the mental healthcare they need, as often as they need it
The Greens' plan:
- Provide universal mental health care with your Medicare Card, expanding the list to more mental health professionals, removing session limits and increasing rebates.
- Ensure everyone has access to quality support from mental health practitioners by employing 1,000 additional peer workers.
- Build free healthcare clinics where people can access GPs, dentists and mental health care services with no out-of-pocket costs.
- Improving pill testing in Australia
-
Pill testing (or drug checking) is currently available in at least 28 countries across Europe and the Americas - as well as New Zealand.
Here in Australia, we don’t have a nationally coordinated approach - with services available in the ACT, Queensland, and soon in Victoria.The research shows that drug checking is a move towards a harm-reduction approach to alcohol and other drugs, and such checks help to prevent avoidable deaths.
The Greens are proposing both fixed and mobile drug-checking facilities, where people will be able to have their substances checked, preventing people from using unusually strong or contaminated drugs, and will enable people to have more knowledge about safer drug use, and how certain drugs can affect them.
The Greens' plan:
- Expand access to drug checking facilities around the country through a drug testing agency that would operate drug testing sites in capital cities and regional hubs and provide free testing services at Australian music festivals.
- Provide funding to the Department of Health and Aged Care to coordinate data collection, analysis and communication of results of the drug tests.
- Chief Oral and Dental Healthcare Officer
-
Too many Australians cannot access the dentist because going to the dentist is too expensive, and most people are not eligible for public dentistry.
In addition to expanding Medicare to include dental care, the Greens will:
- Make dental health a focus for the government by creating a Chief Oral and Dental Healthcare Officer in the Department of Health.
- Give kids a head start in health
-
Good health starts in childhood, and too many children in Australia cannot access proper healthcare because of cost.
We are experiencing a cost of living crisis, and parents are doing it tough.
The Greens will take the pressure off by ensuring children can access free toothbrushes and mental health care through their school.
The Greens' plan:
- Provide kids with free toothbrushes and toothpaste through public schools, taking the pressure off parents struggling to afford these essential healthcare items.
- Provide funding to investigate pathways for children to access better mental health support in schools, including funding to develop a plan for expanding mental health services for children, both within schools and in the wider community.
- Support for mental health services
-
There is a severe mental health and cost of living crisis in Australia, and many people cannot afford adequate mental healthcare.
Mental healthcare is becoming increasingly more inaccessible, especially to those in high-risk groups; LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, First Nations people, people living in rural and remote areas, and people living in income disadvantage.
The Greens believe that we urgently need improved and expanded mental health services to address this crisis.
The Greens' plan:
- Provide preventative and early intervention mental health care by funding $400 million in grants for community mental health organisations to expand their programmes.
- Create a systematic approach to suicide prevention by legislating a National Suicide Prevention Act with a $180 million investment to ensure alignment across all levels of government.
- Ensure safe and culturally responsive mental health care by investing $15 million to train all mental health practitioners in gender affirmation, anti-discrimination, and cultural responsiveness.
- Invest in First Nations health
-
First Nations services are some of the country's best community services, and many mainstream health, legal assistance and childcare services are modelled on First Nations services.
However, successive governments severely under-recognised this, resulting in a lack of infrastructure, transport and culturally safe services.
This has created poor health and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations people, which the Greens would remedy through additional funding.
The Greens' plan:
- Provide $750 million in funding to Aboriginal Controlled
- Community Health Organisations (ACCHOs) for advancing policies and programs within the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
- Improve FAS-D diagnosis and treatment by providing $180 million in funding, including $20 million annually to reduce the costs associated with diagnosis and treatment of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder.
- Prioritise harm reduction
-
Prioritising harm reduction in alcohol and drug policy achieves better health outcomes and saves lines. Prevention is always better than cure.
The Greens have a plan to invest in the alcohol and other drug sectors and improve people’s access to harm-reduction services, including supervised injecting facilities.
The Greens' plan:
- Achieve better public health outcomes by opening 11 supervised injecting facilities across Australia with a $786.2 million investment, modelled on the North Richmond Community Health Medically Supervised Injecting Room.
- Improve access to appropriate alcohol and drug health services by investing $1.2 billion to resource the alcohol and other drug sector, focusing on evidence-based treatment, data sharing, and coordinated service planning.
- Make healthcare more accessible
-
Currently, millions of people are living with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and arthritis. Because of cost, they cannot access all the services they need.
As a result, more people are presenting to our hospitals, placing additional pressure on an already-stretched public health system.
The Greens' plan:
- Expand the Chronic Disease Management Plan to provide free and unlimited services to people with chronic health conditions by removing service caps and raising rebates to match average out-of-pocket costs.
- Provide imprisoned people access to Medicare and PBS by allocating $2 million for a review to make these services available in custodial settings.
- Tackle the health effects of climate change
-
The climate crisis is having an impact on people’s health and mental health due to increased heat waves, air pollution and the number of climate-related disasters.
We are currently underprepared to deliver support services and prepare for disasters, including mental and emotional preparation.
The Greens' plan:
- Establish a National Climate Change Health Officer within the Department of Health and Aged Care with a $2.1 million investment to oversee Australia’s efforts in addressing the health impacts of climate change and implementing the National Health and Climate Strategy.
- Ensure that everyone has the essential health and mental health support they need during and after disasters, and better prepare communities and our response systems for the future.
More information on this policy initiative will be released soon.