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) (14:58): I thank the member for that question and for the work he's doing to talk to his community about some of the really difficult choices governments have to make now to support older Australians at a time of unprecedented ageing in the population.
The minister for aged-care services earlier in question time pointed out the huge investment this government is making to expand the Support at Home program, to secure the Home Support program and to do what we can to support a big expansion in residential aged care. At a time when we need to lean so heavily into expanding aged care, to deliver more beds, to deliver better care and to deliver additional Support at Home packages, we have to make some tough choices, and I've been open and frank about that.
The decision that we took in the budget that was announced by the Treasurer will see an investment of an additional $3 billion saved from that measure into those aged-care services—services that we desperately need. What it will do is return to the original design of the private health insurance rebate that did not differentiate on the basis of age the subsidy that Australians who take out private health insurance membership receive for their membership fees.
People will now receive exactly the same taxpayer subsidy for their private health insurance based on income, so that two houses next to each other, who are on exactly the same household income, will receive exactly the same taxpayer subsidy rather than one that happens to be over the age of 65 receiving a higher level of subsidy than a family in their 50s. We have to take difficult decisions.
I understand that the opposition is not supportive of that. I look forward to hearing from the opposition about whether they intend to cancel that additional investment in aged-care services or whether they're going to find another way to fund the $3 billion that we need to continue the huge expansion in aged-care services that the minister for aged-care services talked about earlier in question time.
I don't pretend this is an easy decision. It's not one we've taken lightly. We've looked at the modelling very carefully.
We're convinced it will have a very marginal impact on private health insurance membership, which continues to climb quarter upon quarter upon quarter. On average, the average member of private health insurance in the affected age groups will pay an extra 70c per day. That obviously depends on the type of product that people have, but this is one of the hard decisions we have to make if we're going to deliver older Australians the dignity and care that they deserve.
The SPEAKER: The member for Fisher is seeking to table a document. Mr Wallace: I seek leave to table a document containing 10,340 signatures from Australians opposed to the government's change to the private health insurance rebate. Mr Burke: That should be presented to the petitions committee.
That's the way it's done. Leave is not granted. There's a way we deal with petitions.
Leave not granted.