QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Health and Ageing and Deputy Leader of the House) (14:55): I thank the member for the opportunity to repeat a few things I was able to say yesterday—frankly, about the pretty misleading campaign that the insurance industry is running about the numbers involved here, which the opposition appear to be quite happy to parrot word for word.

The numbers just used by the member there are entirely different to the position we've put out very clearly that the average impact of the decision that we announced in the budget would be in the order of $220 to $250 a year—nothing like the figures that the member has talked about. The Prime Minister was asked about why we have done this, and I repeat what I said yesterday, which is to say that we have had to take some hard decisions in this budget.

We have a responsible approach to the budget, which seeks to reallocate spending to new areas of need, and, as I think everyone in this parliament and the community knows, there is a growing need for aged-care services in a population that is ageing rapidly. The Minister for Aged Care and Seniors is doing a terrific job in bringing to cabinet proposal after proposal to deliver more beds, more packages of Support at Home and better care to older Australians.

And every single dollar that we will save through this change—a difficult change, I admit—will be ploughed back into aged-care services. And I'll repeat what I said yesterday. If those opposite are opposed to this—first of all, are they saying they don't support the additional beds?

They don't support the additional packages of Support at Home? They want to continue to see older Australians pay for part of the cost of their showers? The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order.

Mr Tehan: Once again, the question didn't talk about the opposition. It talked about the private health insurance rebate. John and Cheryl have asked a question about the $1,000 increase, and I think the minister should be brought back to that question.

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House, on the point of order. Mr Burke: It's always been the case that, when a question includes the sort of rhetoric like 'let that sink in'—that sort of language has always opened up a broader definition of relevance. The SPEAKER: Yes.

The minister will continue his answer, but he wasn't asked about alternative policies, so, if he's going to talk about the impact that he was asked about—I think it was $11 billion, and I think that's the context that he was referring to. I want him to specifically refer to the funding. If he's talking about projects—he just can't talk about the opposition's policies, because the manager was correct: he wasn't asked about the opposition's policies.

But he can refer to the policy that he is responsible for and the funding involved with that. Mr BUTLER: I was asked why we have taken this decision, and I'm reminding the parliament that there are choices that every budget involves. We have made the choice to deliver more aged-care services and more aged-care support at home.

Now, others may take a different choice—not to deliver that aged care, or to put it on the credit card. I make no judgement about that. The impact of this will be to return to the original design of the private health insurance rebate when it was introduced by John Howard, which is not to have a different level of subsidy paid to households on the same income simply because of their age.

What we will have now will be two households next to each other on exactly the same income—one of which happens to be over 65 and the other of which happens to be, for example, in their 40s or their 50s, with children—both in private health insurance, receiving the same level of subsidy from taxpayers. For most, that will be about a quarter of their health insurance bill paid for by taxpayers, and that will continue to be the case.

(Time expired)