QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) (14:33): The estimate of around 44,000 in 2028-29 is the most accurate reflection of the effect of the proposed change. The modelling does extend beyond that, but the reliability of that modelling decreases over time, and that is because assumptions about behaviour, economic conditions and policy settings become less certain over time.

Senator McALLISTER: Despite the change, the overall number of people with private health insurance is expected to continue to increase, including people aged over 65, as it has consistently for the last five years. I would make this point—that the government is determined to invest in aged care in particular and the requirements of older Australians, and it is— Senator McALLISTER: The government has decided to make changes to the way that we offer the private-health insurance rebate and to return the savings derived from that to aged care.

It is a very different approach to the approach taken by those opposite, who never generated savings and who were unable to find the savings that were necessary to meet the pressures on the budget, including the pressures associated with aged care. It is a curious thing, I think, for those opposite to start to answer, because there is a lot of discussion about the need to reduce expenditure, say, from Senator Hume or from Mr Wilson, who says that home aged-care packages need to be controlled, but Angus Taylor didn't back him in.

Mr Taylor didn't back him in when he was asked about that. He won't say, in fact, where he will make cuts. All we hear— (Time expired)