PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr NEUMANN (Blair) (12:04): Well, here we go again. Those opposite are confecting outrage and scaremongering, all designed to create fear and anger among one section of the community—namely, older Australians. Frankly, we're not going to take lectures from the Liberal and National parties, whose record on health care was totally abysmal when they were in government. 'A hit on older Australians', the member for Mallee says.

I can tell you what they did when they were in government. They cut $80 billion out of health and education funding in primary health care and assistance to Australians. The member for Mallee got elected in May 2019 but campaigned for a party that did the following.

In the 2014 budget, Joe Hockey, the then member for North Sydney and treasurer, was the one that cut the tens of billions of dollars out of health funding for this country. They were proposing to introduce a GP tax. That is, they were proposing to increase the cost for primary health care for older Australians to the tune of $7 every single time they visited a GP.

Then they froze the Medicare rebate to doctors, forcing doctors to charge more for people to see them, older Australians in particular. So we're not taking lectures from the Liberal and National parties. Also, now in opposition, they've opposed the urgent services and proposed cutting services like the Medicare urgent care clinics, and they opposed the 60-day scripts for older Australians who are getting PBS medicines.

So it's confected outrage. 'We're really worried about aged care. We're really worried about health care for older Australians.' That's just complete nonsense. It's tosh.

They're not worried about it at all. When in government, they never talk about it. There's political amnesia from the Liberal and National parties on this topic, because they have an atrocious record in health care.

Our proposals to the private health insurance rebate are both fair and fiscally responsible, considering the government spends $8 billion a year on the rebate to help keep private health insurance more affordable and take pressure off our public health system. Our changes will address intergenerational inequity and simplify and target the rebate more fairly. They're going to remove the higher rebate for people 65 years of age and older.

Let's not forget the history of the current arrangements, because, of course, the member for Mallee never talked about it. I'll tell you what happened. In the lead-up to the 2004 federal election, when it was raining gold bars from the China and mining boom, the then prime minister John Howard decided, in a blatant pitch for votes, to increase the private health insurance rebate but only for Australians over 65 years of age.

The higher rebate for people that age and above meant that two houses on the same income received different levels of government rebate based solely on their age. The fact is that older Australians are more likely to retain private health insurance and they receive significantly higher benefits on average than younger Australians, so the rebate is clearly poorly targeted and isn't fulfilling its purported purpose—to incentivise take-up.

We need to restore the original purported intent of the policy. On top of this, the current modelling is simply not the best way nor the wisest way to spend precious taxpayers' money on behalf of older Australians when they significantly need greater aged-care services, which we're doing, and greater public hospital funding, which we're doing. The rebate will remain means tested, paid at a higher rate for those on lower incomes, which I might add was a change that Labor made in 2012 and opposed by the coalition at the time.

This is all about making sure all Australians receive the same private health support based on income, not age. The government estimates this measure will generate about $3 billion in critical savings, which we'll use to deliver more residential aged-care beds, more Support at Home packages, shorter waiting times and better care for older Australians. But I didn't hear a word of that from the member for Mallee, nothing at all, and no support for that proposal either from the coalition as well.

This will allow more people to access aged care, address delayed discharge from hospital or bed block, as the premiers like to talk about, and provide dignity and care to older Australians towards the end of their lives. We are cleaning up the shocking mess that left people living in residential aged care malnourished and some starving. The title of the interim report of the royal commission was one word—Neglect.

That's what happened. They kept on taking money from residential places. These are the people that cut the dementia supplement and the veterans supplement when they were last in, so don't give us this nonsense about being worried about older Australians.