PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (17:32): I stand in strong support of the member for Fisher's motion and urge the Albanese Labor government to scrap this cruel and damaging policy. The Albanese government's move to strip $3 billion from the private health insurance rebate, including nearly $1.6 billion from age pensioners, stands as one of the most cynical and unjust policies ever presented to this parliament.
This is the very definition of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Labor claims it needs the money to fund aged care. How about starting with its lavish net zero spending spree, rather than cutting the health and care of Australia's seniors?
The people of Lyne are absolutely furious. I've been inundated with phone calls, emails, letters and heartfelt pleas from older Australians who feel utterly betrayed. The outrage was so overwhelming that I launched a parliamentary e-petition demanding the government reverse these cuts.
Over 3,300 people signed that e-petition, and thousands more have added their names to a paper petition I will be submitting to this parliament soon. Thousands in my own electorate are demanding that this government listen. These aren't wealthy Australians; Lyne has one of the lowest socioeconomic groups in the country.
These are pensioners, retirees and people on fixed incomes who've made decades of sacrifices to maintain their private health insurance. They don't have any room in their budgets to make any further sacrifice. These are people like Warren from North Haven, who told me that these cuts would be the final straw, forcing him to give up his private health insurance entirely, and Lorraine from Forster-Tuncurry, who thought she was doing the right thing but now feels totally betrayed and misguided by this government.
Their sense of betrayal is completely justified. The consequences reach far beyond individual households. Analysis from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, obtained under a freedom-of-information request, reveals that a widely claimed government figure that only 44,000 Australians will dump private health insurance is set to significantly blow out.
The minister has only ever told Australians the 44,000 figure, but we now know that he's been told that it is far larger—that it's well over 78,000 people. This suggests the minister is deliberately deceiving Australians about the implications of these cuts. Independent modelling suggests the number is even higher.
Catholic Health Australia has warned that over 200,000 people could downgrade their cover, with additional costs to public hospitals potentially reaching $675 million every year. Just consider how absurd that is. The government slashes support for private health insurance, pushes people into the public system and then expects taxpayers and state governments to foot the bill.
The patient remains. The illness remains. The cost remains.
It simply shifts elsewhere. In regional communities like mine, this is especially dangerous. Take Manning Base Hospital, which is already stretched to its limits.
People struggle to attract specialists. People travel great distances for care, and elective surgery waiting lists are far too long. Regional Australia doesn't need a policy that undermines private hospitals and floods the public system with even more patients.
The warnings could not be clearer. National Seniors Australia opposes these cuts. The Australian Medical Association has serious concerns.
Private hospitals, health funds and consumer organisations have all warned of the consequences. Even Labor's state governments have objected and said: 'Stop. Do not move forward with this policy.' What, I have to say, has incensed me more than anything is this Labor led Senate committee that, with all the submissions it received, still recommended the parliament proceed with this legislation.
What extraordinary arrogance from this Albanese Labor government. The coalition's dissenting report has rightly rejected this approach, yet the government still refuses to release the detailed modelling needed to truly understand who will pay and what the real consequences will be. If Labor is truly confident in this policy, lay the evidence on the table.
Health care and aged care should not compete for funding. We should strengthen both not weaken one to prop up the other. There is nothing sensible about making health care costlier for pensioners.
There is nothing fair about punishing those who've done the right thing, and there is nothing responsible about piling more costs onto already overstretched public hospitals. Older Australians of Lyne will remember this betrayal, and I'll keep fighting alongside them until this government abandons this disgraceful policy.