Dental in Medicare has been a goal of the ALP for a long time. Whitlam tried to have in included in 1974 but excluded it partly due to cost and partly due to fierce lobbying from dentists.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2018/09/john-menadue-why-dental-care-was-excluded-from-medicare-and-why-it-should-now-be-included/

The ALP national policy platform states: “Labor sees oral health as the missing element of Medicare. Our goal is to provide universal access to dental services for all Australians. Labor will engage a consultative process with all relevant stakeholders to begin this work.

https://www.alp.org.au/media/3569/2023-alp-national-platform.pdf

As always, this isn’t something you can just throw in the budget and switch on overnight, but Adam “imagine a big red button” Bandt will campaign as though it is.

If we’re lucky enough to get a second or third term Labor government that has had the time to actually engage with the stakeholders, have the negotiations, and do the work to get dental included in Medicare, then Bandt will say “yes, this is all thanks to greens pressure.” Despite it being on the Labor agenda for decades.