Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026
Mr TEHAN (Wannon—Manager of Opposition Business) (18:53): I support what the previous member has said. There is just no justification for this—none whatsoever. It is hard to believe that the Albanese Labor government would want to do this to 1.5 million pensioners.
Mr Pasin: Like veterans. Mr TEHAN: It is! It's sort of similar to taking $750 million off our veterans, who have served us so well.
I wonder who they'll go after next—$750 million ripped out of our veterans, $1.5 million ripped from pensioners. Who else will they go after? Mr Rick Wilson: The NDIS—they'll go after disabled people.
Mr TEHAN: Well, yes! It's just like—I don't know. Do you reckon it's the arrogance of the Prime Minister?
It's— Mr Rick Wilson: Hubris! Mr TEHAN: It's the hubris of the Prime Minister. He just doesn't seem to care, and I think a few of his other ministers are a bit the same.
It's like, 'Priorities? What are priorities? As long as I can have my $150 million presidential pre-COP conference, I'm alright.
I don't care if the money comes out of 1.5 million pensioners' pockets.' It beggars belief. 'I don't care if $750 million comes out of veterans as long as I can keep doing what I want to be doing.' We saw it today. The hubris from the Prime Minister was quite extraordinary. He got a question on the 600 workers in Whyalla who had lost their jobs.
Would he front up and answer it? No—just flick it. Mr Pasin: The once proud Labor Party.
Mr TEHAN: Yes, this is Labor. This is the Labor Party. They're meant to stick up for workers, and yet they'll do this.
I say to the 1.5 million pensioners who are going to be hit by this private health insurance change—I'm apologising to you from the Albanese Labor government. First of all, at the Expenditure Review Committee of cabinet, they would have said, 'Jeez, the budget's in a bit of trouble. We haven't been able to turn things around.
We're heading towards a trillion dollars. We need money so we can keep our pet projects going. Who should we go after?' I don't know whether we'll hear it from any of the speakers on the other side; there don't seem to be many.
But someone must have arced up and said, 'Let's go after the pensioners.' Mr Pasin: They vote Liberal! Mr TEHAN: Yes. I wonder who it was, because the Prime Minister has told us he chairs the Expenditure Review Committee of cabinet.
So I wonder whether it was him. I wonder if it was the Treasurer. I don't know.
Mr Pasin: The next prime minister—the health minister? Mr TEHAN: Yes. Well, the health minister would have had to be there because he would have had to put the submission in.
I'll tell you what; if I was thinking about being the next prime minister, I don't think I'd be wanting to say, 'I'm going to take,' what is it, $800-odd— Mr Pasin: For a single. Mr TEHAN: for a single—from pensioners. 'Here, I've got a good idea, Expenditure Review Committee. Let's take 850 bucks off pensioners.' I'm sure the Prime Minister would have sat there and thought, 'This is the bloke who thinks he's going to be the next prime minister,' and said, 'Yes, that's a good idea, Minister for Health; you do that,' thinking, 'Because that'll keep you at bay for a little while.' Mr Rick Wilson: The bus driver!
Mr TEHAN: Yes, the bus driver! 'You get hit by a bus; I think that might be the end of you.' And the Treasurer would have sat there and thought, 'I need my budget balanced. My opponent here, the minister for health'— Mr Rick Wilson: The competition. Mr TEHAN: Yes. 'My competition is going to cop it, so I'll let that go.' I mean, seriously.
I don't know who else is on the Expenditure Review Committee of cabinet, but, whoever was there, someone should have said something. Then, of course, it would have gone to cabinet because cabinet would have had to give it the final tick. Do you reckon anyone would have stood up for pensioners in that cabinet?
I don't know. I'm trying to think who would have said, 'What about the age pensioners who are doing it tough in a cost-of-living crisis?' Do you think someone would have done that? It doesn't seem like they did, sadly.
Can I say to all those pensioners in Australia, 1.5 million of them, I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that the Albanese Labor government is doing this to you. But I give you a commitment.
We will fight it all the way. The coalition think this is appalling public policy, and there are two reasons why we think it's appalling public policy. The first is they're hitting those who are doing it the hardest.
They are hitting, and hitting hard, those who the cost-of-living crisis is really impacting. As I've said, for a single, it's about $800; for a double, it is more—it is over a thousand. Now, when you've seen your electricity bill go up by 40 per cent, when you've seen your gas bill go up by way over 20 per cent, when you've seen your insurance go through the roof, when you've seen a basket of groceries go through the roof, the last thing you need to see is your private health insurance rebate hit.
But that is what is happening here. It's bad, because this isn't a cost-of-living relief measure. This is an adding to the cost-of-living measure.
In a cost-of-living crisis, what's the Albanese Labor government's big brainwave? It's to add to the cost of living even more for 1.5 million pensioners. Then there's the other bad public policy aspect of this.
The public health system is stretched to near breaking point. People can't get in to get treatment, and the Albanese Labor government have been warned about this. Who have they been warned by?
The Western Australian state premier, who's Labor; the Northern Territory leader, who is coalition; the South Australian premier, Labor; the Queensland premier, LNP; the New South Wales premier, Labor; the ACT leader, Labor; the Victorian premier, Labor; and the Tasmanian premier, Liberal. Every single state and territory leader across the board has said this policy is nuts.
As a matter of fact, at the state and territory leaders meeting with the health minister every single one of them tore him a new one. They said this is madness. And what's the government's response?
We're still here tonight and we're still debating this bill. You'd think they'd listen when every single one of them, one after another, lines up— Mr Pasin: No speakers here. Mr TEHAN: Oh, there are no speakers on their side.
They're courageous as well, aren't they? Every state and territory leader said: 'This isn't good. This isn't smart.
This is bad. This is going to just cost-shift from your budget onto ours. This is madness.' Yet, do they listen to every single one of these state and territory leaders?
No, they don't. I hadn't realised this. Here's the speakers list for the House of Representatives.
It says, 'Tuesday 15 September 2026, Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill'—that's what they called it! Oh, this is 'modern' Australia, hitting 1.5 million pensioners in a cost-of-living crisis with $800 if you're a single and over $1,000 if you're a double! This is 'modernising' Australia.
Well, I'll tell you what: I don't want to be a part of modern Australia under the Albanese Labor government. This is not modernising. It's funny because I thought that all of them would be in here defending their 'modernising' of the private health insurance rebate.
I thought they would all be in here defending this, because this is obviously really important. If you truly believe that you're modernising the private health insurance rebate, you'd be singing from the rafters about it. I wonder how many of them have put out in their electorates that they're doing this.
Do you reckon they've had direct mail-outs to over-65s saying, 'We're about to hit you with an $800 extra fee for your private health insurance and, if you're a couple, over $1,000'? Do you think they've done that? I wonder whether the member opposite, the member for Bruce, has let all his— Mr Pasin: He's a good communicator!
Mr TEHAN: Oh, he is, just ask him. Do you reckon he's let all his constituents know? I don't think so, somehow.
Even though this is all about modernising Australia, I've got a funny feeling that he would not have communicated with all his constituents about this. I wonder why! This list says it all.
You're all embarrassed by this. You're all absolutely embarrassed about this. I get it.
If I was ripping that money away from 1.5 million pensioners during a cost-of-living crisis, I'd be embarrassed as well. I'd be so embarrassed that I wouldn't even want to come to the chamber and speak. And the funny thing is—have a look—none of them are here to speak.
Have a look at the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 lining up to oppose this. Who's for it? Mr Pasin: Silence.
Mr TEHAN: Silence. And yet this is modernising private health insurance. The great modern Labor Party—1.5 million pensioners.
They're unbelievable! The funny thing about this was that they didn't even know what their policy had changed or what their modernising of Australia was going to do. Not only is this bad public policy, but no-one did the work.
No-one actually thought about what this was going to do. The sad thing for the 1.5 million pensioners of Australia is that, not only are they going to be hit with this extra cost to their private health insurance; sadly, if they have to give their private health insurance up—which some of them will be forced to do, and the modelling says that—guess where they have to go, then, to get the treatment they need?
They have to go to the public hospital system. And guess what every leader in the state and territory has said is going to happen? That's going to be stretched even further, and those poor pensioners won't be able to get the treatment that they need when they need it.
I hope all of you are really proud of this; I really do. I hope you all think that this is what you got into government for—to do this to pensioners. I hope tomorrow, when you walk back into this chamber, you all say, 'Oh, isn't this great how we're modernising Australia?
We're ripping money out of pensioners' pockets.' When those poor pensioners have to give up their private health insurance, they're going to have to go to an even more stretched public health system because all you've done is cost shift from the federal government onto every state and territory. It's hard to believe how we got here. But, sadly, there is nothing about this Albanese Labor government now that I don't find appalling.