TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
RADIO 7AD DEVONPORT THE HOME RUN WITH LEE DIXON
WEDNESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2021
SUBJECTS: Dental care; Fire crackers; Melbourne protests; Morrison’s failed vaccine rollout; lockdown.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCTION, SHADOW MINISTER FOR WOMEN: It's great to be with you Lee.
LEE DIXON, HOST: So something that's highlighted here in front of me is the fact that young people in Tasmania want their teeth removed because they think it's the norm. What is going on here?
PLIBERSEK: I saw that terrible story, that is just so sad. So you're talking about people in their 20s and 30s wanting to get full dentures because their teeth are so bad and they think it's cheaper than getting proper dental work. When I was the Health Minister a few years ago, we introduced the kids dental program just to avoid this sort of thing. So we set aside $4 billion so that we could see three and a half million kids get a visit to the dentist, a thousand dollars’ worth of dental care every two years. We also put extra money into public dental. It's such a shame, it’s such a shame that that support hasn't continued, the extra money for public dental. Because if your teeth are bad, your overall health can't be good. And it's so bad for people like when they're going for job, or trying to make new friends, it really affects their confidence if their teeth aren't good, as well as obviously it can really affect your whole health.
DIXON: Actually one of the ladies featured in the story actually said that she's been for several job interviews and can feel the person conducting the interview looking at her and she's wondering whether or not they’ve noticed that she's got no teeth and whether that's actually why she's getting no callbacks, etcetera. So this runs a lot deeper than that, vanity is a funny thing in 2021. We’re talking about social media and the power it has over our younger generations. You go on TikTok, and Instagram, and reels, and whatever they all are - everybody's got a perfect set of teeth as well, they're all white and shiny. So I'm sure that's a contributing factor as well.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, you know it really does undermine your confidence. I've spoken to so many people over the years who've got a few teeth missing at the front of their mouth and they won't smile, they won't talk. And then it's true you go in for a job interview, I'm sure that there's a bit of prejudice, particularly if people are going to put you into a customer facing role. But it's also about your own confidence and how you feel about yourself. It's hard to perform well in a job interview if you're if you're feeling embarrassed about your teeth.
DIXON: And they say, if you smile, you feel good. It does all these things with hormones in your body. So if you're not smiling, you're also going to feel down, aren't you?
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know what, we found with older people it even affected their nutrition because they weren't able to eat meant, for example, they were choosing soft foods and so on - that can affect your overall nutrition. You can get blood poisoning, if you get gum infections. This is a big deal. We need to make sure people can look after their teeth, and that our public dental system is strong, and that the kids dental program, that people are making use of that for their kids.
DIXON: Cracker night that apparently could be a thing of the past here in Tassie. There are going to be reviewing the explosive regulations here in Tassie in 2022. Has firecracker night or bonfire night been part of your life, Tanya?
PLIBERSEK: Look, it was a big part of my life growing up and I feel very sentimental about it. But I did see in Tassie last Friday that a man very sadly died near Launceston from a firework incident and that's just terrible. So, I get it, I get why people love it, I get why people feel protective and sentimental about it, but it was a tragic death there last week.
DIXON: And the earthquake this morning in Victoria, one of the largest in Australian history of 5.8, 5.9, 120km out of Melbourne. That was something to surprise a lot of people today.
PLIBERSEK: Well, it was a big surprise and I was getting calls saying, did you feel that in Sydney? Apparently people did. But not me. I didn’t notice it, which I’m not sure what that says about me, that other people noticed it but I didn't.
DIXON: Well, you're in lockdown and you said you’ve got kids running around, maybe they were distracting you?
PLIBERSEK: Yeah, probably. There's probably more noise and crashing and banging at my house in a normal day than there is in an earthquake.
DIXON: Well I had the garbage truck in my street at the time so I'm a bit confused as to whether I felt it or not.
PLIBERSEK: The other thing that's happening in Melbourne, of course, is those terrible protests with all these idiots today defacing the shrine of remembrance. I don't know. Where does it end?
DIXON: It's starting to, you know this is stuff that we see happen overseas and scoff at, but when it's happening in our own backyard, there is a lot of confusion going on. And what I'm confused at is that they go in saying that it's going to be a peaceful protest, or at least go in the guise of a peaceful protest, and then stuff like this happens. There are a couple of thugs in amongst people that are genuinely try to make a statement.
PLIBERSEK: Yeah. Look, I'm all for peaceful protest when it can be done safely and smoothly. But here, you've got people attacking police and I just, I don't understand it. You know, these police are on the front line doing their job, trying to look after us, trying to keep the community safe, and we've got people throwing punches, throwing bottles. It's just shocking.
DIXON: And then the Channel 7 reporter yesterday as well.
PLIBERSEK: Exactly, just doing his job. When did we start violently assaulting people just doing their job? It's awful.
DIXON: There's a call for December 8th to be the unlock date. A lot of people are confused and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. Why are we, you know from the outside looking in, it doesn't seem that we're getting many answers from the people that we should be. Where do you stand on that?
PLIBERSEK: Yeah. Well, I think it's time for the Prime Minister to step up. He is the leader of the nation, it would be really good if we had some national leadership. And the reason that we're in this second lot of lockdowns is because Australia was too slow with the vaccine rollout and we've got a hopeless system of hotel quarantine. Hotels aren't built to house people with a really transmissible virus. We should have had a national quarantine system, we should have had a vaccine rollout done much better, much sooner, much faster, with more jabs in more people's arms sooner, and we could have avoided this second long lockdown. I'm over it. I've had enough of it, my kids have been learning at home, you know not able to go to school, l for the whole of this term. I've got people in my area who had businesses that they've had for 10 or 20 or 30 years, who don't know that they're going to make it. We're all over it. But the best way to get out of lockdown is to look after each other. Get vaccinated. Do it for your family, do it for your community, do it for your country and for the Prime Minister to finally get the quarantine system right.
DIXON: Great to talk as per usual. We haven't managed to save the world, but we've addressed a couple of issues that people are talking about today.
PLIBERSEK: If only they put the two of us in charge maybe we would!
DIXON: Wishful thinking hey? Tanya Plibersek on the Home Run.
PLIBERSEK: Thanks Lee, See you.
ENDS
