MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr WILLCOX (Dawson) (15:55): I rise today to speak for a proud generation of Australians who have shamelessly been targeted by this hapless Albanese Labor government. They are our seniors, our retirees and our pensioners. These are the people who built our nation, worked hard, paid their taxes and sacrificed for decades so they could enjoy a secure retirement.
They were promised certainty in their twilight years, but instead they've been handed a brutal betrayal of a budget. This Albanese Labor government has looked at the hard-earned savings of older Australians and treated them like a cash cow to fund its reckless spending. When Labor run out of money, they come after yours.
Hidden in the budget papers is the widow's tax, the title transfer trap. Under the new rules, the simple administrative act of updating a property deed due to the death of a lifelong partner strips away the grandfathered protections. This is a financial penalty on grief.
The moment an asset changes to a surviving spouse's name alone, their capital gains tax discounts vanish, triggering a massive unplanned tax bill during a period of deep personal trauma. To add insult to injury, the private health insurance rebate has been slashed. The budget systematically reduces the private health insurance rebate for anyone over the age of 65, breaking a decades-old promise to look after seniors on fixed incomes.
This will exacerbate the hospital crisis, forcing seniors off private cover through artificial premium spikes. This will drive vulnerable patients back into the public system, placing immense pressure on struggling regional hospitals. And we certainly know that regional hospitals are already at breaking point.
The cruellest blow of all is the allied health cap for our veterans. The government has slapped a rigid $5,000 annual cap on allied health services for veterans, including physiotherapy, podiatry and occupational therapy. That's an insult to their service.
Our aged veterans did not put a cap on their service when they stood up for Australia. This government has no right to put a cap on their medical care. In this budget, those opposite have abolished the 50 per cent CGT, capital gains tax, discount.
Completely removing the longstanding capital gains discount heavily penalises regional small-business owners and retired farmers who have spent a lifetime building an asset to fund their own retirement. A lot of these people haven't had the resources to put money into super. Their farm was their super.
By destroying the nest egg, decades of physical labour and early morning work has been treated like a sudden windfall, with the tax office taking a massive bite out of independent savings that were meant to create wealth in these people's twilight years. The changes to trust income attack self-funded retirees. Changes to discretionary and family trusts directly harm self-funded retirees who utilise these legal structures to manage steady retirement income.
Restricting financial independence, these changes penalise older Australians who've worked hard to maintain self-sufficient, independent funding for their aged care. The hidden trap is the inflation. We're living in a Labor created cost-of-living crisis.
With inflation, everything has gone up. Groceries have gone up, insurance has gone up, and mortgages have gone up. Every single thing that those opposite do is creating a bigger cost for people, and the most affected are our elderly.
This budget strikes a cruel blow to anyone over the age of 65. It's a calculated assault on financial independence, and it's happened during the worst time this country has ever seen. You do not build a fair country by making our seniors poorer, and you certainly do not build a strong economy by penalising the people who have worked hard to achieve self-reliance.
This budget tells older Australians that their lifetime of effort does not matter.