Wednesday, 4 August 2021

School dental services

Mr CARBINES (Ivanhoe) (09:58): I was really pleased to kick off Dental Health Week, as Parliamentary Secretary for Health and also as member for Ivanhoe, at the Banyule Community Health service in West Heidelberg, where we got a chance to meet as well as wave off the Smile Squad, who were heading off to visit their first school, Streeton Primary School, which would be well known to you, Speaker, sitting on the boundary of our electorates and a school that we visited just last term. It is doing great work supporting many students and families of course who are ADF personnel at Simpsons Barracks in my electorate. They were the beneficiaries of the first Smile Squad visit from Banyule Community Health.

This is an over $300 million investment from the Andrews government to provide free dental care to some 600 000-plus students across schools in our state. It is fantastic that Banyule Community Health have been given the task of visiting those schools across the Banyule local government area. They do a fantastic job. They have got huge respect in our community as both a vaccination centre and a testing hub for COVID and now for rolling out those Smile Squad vans, which are employing some 500 dentists, dental technicians and oral health therapists right across the state. It was fantastic to see them and wave them off on the road for their first round of visits. I know from talking to CEO Mick Geary that principals are really keen to get them booked in across schools in Banyule, which will benefit the Eltham, Bundoora and Ivanhoe electorates.