Victorians could be treated at 20 new free dental clinics under a re-elected Labor government, with Premier Ben Carroll releasing a list of local government areas where they would be built if his government is returned in this month’s election.
Carroll will return to the Labor campaign bus on Sunday to announce a doubling of his August promise to provide 10 public clinics that offer free dental care.
The Coalition will spend Sunday campaigning on safety for service workers, pledging to one-up the government’s workplace protection orders by expanding them and allowing interim bans while alleged offenders await trial.
Details of both announcements have been provided to The Age in advance.
Instead of the originally promised 10 clinics, Carroll is now pledging to build 20 clinics, at a cost of $460 million, which would start opening from the middle of 2027.
“No Victorian should ever have to live in pain because they can’t afford to see a dentist,” the premier said in a statement.
“We’ll deliver 20 free dental clinics, open to anyone of any age.”
“I’m hitting the road with my team to visit every community getting a free dental clinic.”
Labor has also released the local government areas where the 20 clinics would be located.
Six would be in regional Victoria including the major population centres of Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton and the Latrobe region.
Another 14 are slated for Melbourne, with most municipalities – except for Yarra, Banyule and Monash – encompassing the city’s growing outer suburbs.
Health Minister Ingrid Stitt said the clinics would be opened in areas with longer waiting times for public dental.
When the free dental plan was first announced, Labor also pledged $12.9 million to grow the workforce to staff these clinics, including support for clinicians moving to regional areas and scholarships to boost qualifications.
Carroll will add to this with a $5 million commitment of sign-on bonuses for dentists who come into the public sector, starting at $20,000 for Melbourne dentists and $30,000 for those sign on in the regions.
Labor has leaned heavily on the free dental clinics as one its key election pledges, hoping to counteract slumping poll numbers .
While the party thinks it is a popular policy with the public, the Australian Dental Association has criticised the idea.
In August, Victorian branch president Dr Carolyn Ng said the policy would increase wait times for the more than 2 million low-income or vulnerable people who are currently eligible for public dental care but wait up to three years.
She also questioned how the government was going to staff the new clinics, noting that publicly funded dental chairs across the state were already operating at roughly 50 per cent capacity due to a workforce shortage.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson promised to improve the workplace protection order scheme legislated in August.
Starting March 2027, the new laws give courts the power to ban or limit a person’s access to retail businesses and public transport operators if they attack frontline workers.
But the Australian Retail Council has criticised Victoria’s scheme because it does not include interim orders while the court decides on a ban. The Carroll government says these are not needed because the state has a lower threshold to bar a person from a workplace.
The Coalition will on Sunday pledge to introduce interim protection orders and to expand the scheme to all “commercial, hospitality and service-based premises where workers deal with the public”.
Victoria Police would also be able to apply for protection orders on behalf of victims and the scheme would begin a month earlier, on February 1, under a Wilson government.
Penalties for breaching an order will be fines of $50,000 or above to two years in prison.
“Victorian families are already doing it tough with the cost of living. The last thing they need is to worry about their loved ones being threatened or assaulted just for turning up to work,” Wilson said in a statement.
Shadow attorney-general James Newbury said anyone threatened or attacked at work shouldn’t have to wait for a court hearing, which could take months, before the alleged offender was banned.
“Our interim protection orders will help close that gap and give workers the protection they need while their case proceeds,” he said.
Last week, Labor promised to expand the scheme to hospitals, with similar penalties.
Violent offenders could be banned from hospitals for up to a year under this proposal, but Carroll denied that vulnerable people would be unable to access healthcare.
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