Victorians would be able to walk into a dental clinic and receive free checkups and treatment under an Australian-first proposal the Labor government will take to the November state election. The premier, Ben Carroll, will announce the plan – Labor’s first major election commitment – at a rally on Saturday to mark fewer than 100 days until Victorians go to the polls. Carroll will say a re-elected Labor government would spend $230m to open 10 public dental clinics across the state, where oral care clinicians would be able to provide free checkups and treatments, including fillings, root canals and extractions.
Carroll described the plan as “structural cost-of-living support” and a national-first intervention by a state government. The health minister, Ingrid Stitt, described the plan as the dental equivalent of the state’s urgent care clinics, where people can “turn up and get the care you need”. Under the proposal, seven of the public dental clinics would be located in Melbourne and three in regional Victoria, in areas where there are gaps in services.
The clinics would be open from 9am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on weekends and would operate on a walk-in basis, with priority given to people with the most urgent needs, including those experiencing dental pain or swelling or who have had an accident. Once fully operational, the government said they would treat more than 100,000 Victorians a year. The state’s urgent care clinics were similarly unveiled just three months before the 2022 Victorian election as part of a joint announcement with New South Wales.
The federal government also began contributing funding to the clinics and expanded the rollout. It is unclear whether the Victorian government will seek federal funding or involvement in the proposed dental clinics. Across most of Australia, free or low-cost dental care is currently only available to specific eligible groups such as children and young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those with concession cards.
In Victoria, $239m was allocated in the 2026-27 budget to dental, including the Smile Squad program in public schools. But Medicare does not cover dental care for most adults, leaving millions of Australians to choose between dipping into their wallets or skipping treatment. According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data, Australia spends more than $12bn on dental services.
About 61% of that cost falls to the individual, health insurance funds cover 19%, and the federal government 11% and state governments 8%. There has also been a sharp rise in applications to access superannuation early to fund dental treatment. Guardian Australia reported in 2025 that people struggling to afford dental bills were delaying or skipping treatment, while untreated tooth decay was increasing and record numbers of Australians were presenting to hospitals for dental procedures.
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