ADJOURNMENT

Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (19:40): It's always a pleasure to follow my friend the member for Sturt, especially after such a beautifully thoughtful contribution on behalf of her community. Last week, I dropped a new Australian flag in to the Lyrebird Village aged-care facility in Drouin, and I had the immense privilege of sitting down for a cup of tea with a group of women who live there.

They had grown up in Iona, Jindivick and Drouin, mostly around the Gippsland region, and they shared with me their stories of riding to school and meeting farmers and postmasters whom they married and raised families with. They talked to me about farming in good times and tough. It was a real privilege for me to listen to the stories and experiences of a group of women who have lived full, accomplished lives, and that deserves respect.

I want to share with you an email that I received last week from Rhonda, who lives in my electorate. It's the first time she's ever written to a member of parliament. She said: If you're a baby boomer, you're made to feel like you're stealing food from the mouths of the younger generation.

Rhonda's husband has been a brickie and a landscaper his whole working career. Decades of physical labour have taken their toll. They've worn his body down, and he's had to cut back on work.

Like many tradies, he will need medical support in the years ahead. Rhonda and her husband did all of the right things: they worked hard, they saved hard, and they've tried to put a bit of extra money away into private health care so they wouldn't be a burden on the public system. Now the Albanese government's cuts to the private health insurance rebate for over-65s mean that they will barely be able to afford to keep their private health care, right at the point in their lives when they will need it the most.

Many older Australians have had enough of the boomer bashing. They're not responsible for this government's housing crisis. They deserve support to participate in society, access services and not be disadvantaged because of a digital divide.

Disadvantaging older Australians isn't an isolated story under this federal government; it is this prime minister's operating manual. Take housing. The focus should be on home affordability and ownership for younger Australians and first-time homeowners, yet, under this government's housing policy failures, many seniors are watching their home equity, often their only real safety net, crash in value.

Older women are the fastest-growing group of homeless Australians—up to almost 40 per cent in a decade. Divorce or widowhood, combined with a lifetime of lower super, is enough to lock them out of re-entering the housing market. Who is standing up for them?

Then there's superannuation. Thousands of grieving families are waiting years for death benefits owed to them. AustralianSuper is being sued by the regulator over these delays, and Cbus was fined a huge amount recently for the same failure.

After 18 months of promising a legislative fix, the government still hasn't done anything. Many older Australians rely on bricks-and-mortar banking. A landmark Senate inquiry in 2024 found that 596 country towns have lost every bank branch they once had.

Two years on, the government has just released a half-hearted response to the report, with no strategy. Older Australians deserve face-to-face support behind a branch counter, not just a phone app. Rhonda, her husband and the ladies I mentioned earlier have all done the right thing by this country.

They've contributed to their community. They deserve better. Their government is failing them.

Around 21,600 seniors in Monash are potentially affected by changes to the private health insurance rebate. Thousands of people responded to a survey that I put out recently asking them for their opinion. Ninety-seven per cent of people in my electorate that I surveyed on changes to the private health insurance rebate for over-65s said that they opposed the proposed change.

More than 80 per cent of respondents said that they would or likely would have to cancel their private health insurance if that change went ahead. Older Australians are not asking for something special; they are just asking for a fair go from this government. They are asking for some respect from a country they have spent their lives investing in and contributing to, and they deserve far better.