Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Senator RUSTON (South Australia—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (12:52): I move opposition amendment (1) on sheet 3946: (1) Schedule 1, item 4, page 24 (after line 10), after subsection 66(1), insert: (1A) Rules for the purposes of paragraph (1)(a) or (b) must only specify a provision that is a section, subsection, paragraph or subparagraph. Note: Rules for the purposes of paragraph (1)(a) and (b) specify provisions under which computer programs may take incentive payment programs administrative action for the Secretary or the Chief Executive Medicare.

Specifying such provisions at the section level or lower makes easier to identify which kinds of actions are to be taken by a computer program. This amendment provides for greater guidance on what specific decisions can be made through automated decision-making. As I mentioned in my speech in the second reading debate, while autonomous decision-making may be appropriate for simple decisions, applying it more broadly or universally can have disastrous effects, as we have witnessed with the use of automated decision-making when it comes to the Aged Care Act.

This amendment seeks to make sure that we do not see a repeat of what we've seen with the aged-care algorithm, and I would commend this amendment to the chamber.