Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (18:26): I'd like to begin where the member for McPherson finished off, which—apart from his excellent speech—is the contempt and disdain that this government has for older Australians who are simply saving and sacrificing to, according to this government, do horrific things: take care of their health and wellbeing and make sure they have security in their retirement.

We just heard from the member for Bruce, the minister. He said that he was dismissing commentary and that he didn't mind criticism because no-one was really listening to it anyway. I remember this experience in the lead-up to the 2019 election.

I remember when we continually reminded Labor how their policy around refundable franking credits would push older Australians down the financial stairs. And the response, of course we all remember, from the then aspirational treasurer was, 'Well, if you don't like it, you're perfectly entitled to vote against us.' And boy oh boy did the Australian people send them a message.

The problem is that this government doesn't listen. They don't care. They're not interested in the health and wellbeing of the Australian people.

And, even worse than that, the thing they want to target most is the private health insurance of Australians. If we have a strong competitive private health sector, not only does it provide health security for Australians; it improves access and improves excellence. Their view, in their sort of zero-sum binary context, is that it leads to an outcome which means worse public health, which is a form of delusion that only a mad socialist could believe—or, of course, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

The problem we've got is a government that is not interested in listening to Australians. When we have 60-year-olds, 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds and 90-year-olds saying, 'What this government is doing is directly attacking my financial and health security,' the response of the government is simply to turn around and say, 'We see nothing, we hear nothing and we certainly aren't going to be speaking about it.' In fact, what we're seeing from all of the Labor members who are signing up to the minister for health's plan is them betraying their own voters.

They're selling out their communities for their own political benefit. The Minister for Health and Ageing should be aware of this. I know he's deputising and getting ready for his run to the prime ministership once and as soon as, of course, the Prime Minister's run—God help us!—is over.

But, as soon as it's over, he is racing towards that job. Well, I've got a message for the minister for health: attacking older Australians and their private health insurance isn't a good audition for getting into a position to one day become Prime Minister. But that's not going to stop them.

What the member for McPherson has done is bring the stories of real Australians being attacked by this government—that the government does not want to hear—into this chamber. Of course, he is not alone; every electorate around the country has people. The only question is whether the Labor MPs are listening—whether Labor MPs are bothering to read the emails from their constituents.

I'm quite sure the member for Bruce would have some too. I'm quite sure he'd shred them or not pay any attention to what's being said. But we know that this is happening across the country.

And what are the stories? The stories are of people who have saved and sacrificed their entire adult lives so they can be in a position in retirement to have security. I don't know about you, Deputy Speaker—I would have thought having older Australians in a position of economic security was a good thing.

Don't you think, Deputy Speaker? I'd certainly hope you'd think so. In fact, we want economic security, I would have thought, as much as possible for people at all stages of life—but not under the Albanese government.

They only look at the Australian people as a honeypot to raid, because they cannot control their spending or inflation addiction. Let me tell you some of the stories from the Goldstein electorate of what we've got. One says: My wife and I are on the full pension.

I'm 90 years old, my wife, 84 years … We have been members of HBA/Bupa for 65 years. My super has two months before running out and our cash reserves are not great but I have always saved to pay our Bupa premium. I have just been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and I've had two hospital visits this year, my wife has had one … If we did not have private health we would not receive this prompt attention in a public hospital.

What's the response the Albanese government? It's not to listen to that story. It's to dismiss their concerns and their health and wellbeing.

We'll never take lectures from this government about health care and delivery for the Australian people, because the Labor Party only sees health care through the prism of what they can control and what they can deliver, and they like to ration it out to people so that they can keep people under control. Another constituent says: I'm an 80year old non-earning part-pensioner, relying on a modest super balance, a small share portfolio and some Centrelink payments.

Labor is going after Centrelink recipients, now. We have recently upgraded our health insurance policy in view of advancing age and health needs. In so doing we have reduced not only our dependence, but also any pressure on public hospitals services … Amen!

Now, with the Government's proposed reduction in rebates, we will be hit with about 8 per cent increase in out-of-pocket premium costs. This is basically is a tax-hike of 8 per cent for us. That’s for 80-year-olds.

Where does the government get its priorities from? This works out on our current premium an increase of approximately $618.00 per year. Add this to the 4 per cent annual increase announced for 2027.

On our current rebated premium amount this works out to another $208.54. A total tax levy of $816.00 on non-earning pensioners. Great job, well done and fantastic move, Prime Minister.

Here's another story. With the new increases, another constituent writes that they'll be paying $823 a month in private health insurance. The self funded retiree believes this is going to put a huge strain on the public health system.

Yes! And, of course, we have so many others. Another woman who wrote to us said: I started work in 1966 at the age of 15 1/2 and have worked continuously until my retirement at the age of 68.

They've worked for the last 40 years in the law as a personal assistant and conveyancing clerk. They took out private health cover at age 21, and they've worked consistently since then and continued to have private health insurance since then. They were at the top level of their cover, and it was costing them $239.45 per month.

Not shockingly, they've paid their taxes. They've done the right thing. And they thought that, with superannuation, they'd be in a position to be stable.

I quote: I am absolutely horrified that Mark Butler MP has decided—with the Labor Party—to throw our aged citizens to the kerb and remove the private health insurance rebate. The effect on our struggling and overwhelmed general hospital … will have catastrophic outcomes for many people. It will have a direct impact on the quality of care.

But what is really being shouted and screamed out on behalf of many elderly Australians who will be affected by this change is that it was done sneakily before the budget was delivered and, no doubt, in the hope that the Australian people would forget. So, yes—in the lead-up to the budget, the government decided they were going to punch down on small businesses.

They were going to punch down on innovators. They were going to punch down on Australians who are backing themselves, working hard to get ahead. And they've decided to punch down on older Australians who simply want to take care of themselves and make sure they have health security.

Here's another story: We are a retired couple—69/68 years of age—living on a fixed income and receiving the Commonwealth Low Income Health Care Card. How proud the Labor Party must be punching down on people on low-income healthcare cards. We have no assets other than the family home and find it difficult to pay increasing costs— of course, because the government continues to stoke inflation and undermine and kneecap every Australian to be able to afford basic costs.

As a consequence, they maintain private health insurance because their personal health circumstances require it. They've undergone a number of surgeries and medical procedures, and they need timely medical intervention at times. At a time when the cost of living remains high, the single most pressing issue for most older Australians is to make sure that they can address their significant health needs so they can have a decent quality of life.

They fundamentally disagree with the approach that government is taking and how much they have been pushed aside. This is the problem, because the quiet promise of the Australian way of life was that, if you worked hard, looked after yourself and took some responsibility, you'd never be a burden on anyone and, in return, the government wouldn't punish you for doing the right thing.

But we know that isn't what this Albanese government is doing. Millions of older Australians kept their side of the promise for more than 50 years, but the government has broken its promise, because the Albanese government can't control its spending and inflation addiction. This bill is not about the budget; it's about people—particularly those people in places like Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston—who have done the right thing.

They are not necessarily wealthy, and they're certainly not gaming the system. They held on to the cover throughout their working life for a simple reason: they wanted to stay off the public waiting list and they wanted to have control and choice over their health care, particularly as they moved to the later stages of life. It's couples like so many that I've outlined already, where they're in a vulnerable situation and they need security.

The government has tried to kick the Zimmer frame effectively out from beneath them. It is the widow down the road on a single pension who keeps her extra cover so she can make sure she can get physio. It's the man who retired from the trades and never once made a claim he could avoid and, of course, in the latter stage of life needs higher levels of care.

They did the right thing. In Goldstein we actually have even more private health insurance policies than we do voters. That's how important it is for communities—not that Labor, of course, ever cares about electorates like mine, because it represents the beating heart of aspiration across this country.

This is the problem. This is who the government is now taking from. They are the people that Labor has decided they want to target and—I think we need to be honest—attack.

The government is stripping back the private health insurance rebate that older Australians have relied on to make sure that they can make decisions and control their own health care. They're taking it away, and the government's own minister admits the change will hit about 3.2 million Australians aged 65 and over. On the government's own numbers, the average hit is at least 250 bucks a year, but for many people it could be substantially higher.

The government has a word for all of this. It calls it 'modernising'. It talks about it in the context of the budget and the rubbish narrative that it's pushing out there, which is doing nothing to improve the welfare of the Australian people and in fact is destroying the wealth and wages of the Australian people—particularly young Australians.

This is the cruelty of it. This change forces a genuinely difficult choice on people at the most vulnerable stages of their lives. Do they make a choice to cut back on essentials—food, gas—or do they downgrade their health cover or drop it altogether?

No moral government would turn around and make the case that they should punish older Australians like this—particularly those who've made decisions about their long-term financial wellbeing and their health care. Unsurprisingly, National Seniors Australia has found that as many as 45 per cent of people whose sole source of income is the age pension still also hold private health insurance.

Let's think about that. Forty-five per cent of people whose sole source of income is the age pension still hold private health insurance. This is how important it is to economic security and for health security for older Australians.

Former Australian Medical Association president Dr Michael Gannon put it plainly: 'This will hit people who choose to put their health above their holidays and their leisure pursuits.' These are people who went without so they could not be a burden, and Labor's answer is to make them pay more, make choices and live a lower quality of life, including potentially in pain.

This is part of something the government doesn't want to talk about: when people drop private health cover, the costs don't disappear. We know they get pushed onto the state system. Increasingly, state governments are turning around and saying: 'We're calling time on the federal government's assault on older Australians.

It'll push up costs. It'll make it harder to get health care for every Australian.' Let's be honest about what this policy actually is. It does not cut costs; it shifts costs onto states and means lower-quality health outcomes for Australians.

This is why we'll never take a lecture from Labor again. To all those people across the country who need private health insurance: we get it and we're on your side. We understand that Labor's intention is to make sure you live a lower quality of life, particularly in the latter stages of your life.

We have a plan, and we are going to make sure that we fight for your capacity to access private health insurance and that we don't again face a Labor government that assaults directly the economic security and the health security of older Australians. This government is not interested in listening to the Australian people.