MOTIONS
Mrs McINTOSH (Lindsay) (10:00): There sure is. I second this motion. Nobody likes a double dipper, and the minister has come in here and double dipped in the most atrocious way on a bad bill that no Australian likes.
I don't know if the government gets out in their electorates, but there's not a single older person in my community that supports this bill, and there's a distinct feeling of deja vu. Yesterday the government was embarrassed in the Senate, with the coalition and the entire crossbench voting to strike Labor's private health insurance tax grab on older Australians from the parliamentary agenda.
Whilst we haven't yet had time to digest the detail, we pretty much think that the minister has just reintroduced—as I said, double dipping—a bad bill. It feels a bit like Marty McFly from Back to the Future, when he shouts at the TV, 'Hey, I've seen this one,' to which the minister replies: 'What do you mean you've seen this? There's nothing to see here.
It's brand new.' But, sadly, for every single older Australian and this parliament, this is not a classic. After yesterday's embarrassing but righteous defeat you would think the government would see sense and abandon this absolutely cruel—it's not only cruel; it's dumb—policy, but no. Today the Minister for Health and Ageing spat the dummy and reintroduced his bill.
He said that it's going to be introduced on 1 April 2027—an April Fool's joke for older Australians. The date says it all. It is not a joke; it is absolutely serious.
He labelled the decision to strike down this proposal a travesty. What is a travesty is that the government is once again trying to impose an $11 billion hit on older Australians, with half that money coming off the back of the pensioners and older people in our community that come to you, Minister, and ask for help. And you say: 'We're not going to help you.
We're going to impose more fees on you.' With the government going back to the future, the coalition will follow suit. The coalition still opposes this absolutely horrible bill. It will continue to oppose any cuts to the private health insurance rebate for older Australians.
On the government's own numbers, this was the biggest rise in private health costs for older Australians on record. Older Australians were going to be forced to pay more, wait longer and get less. But the minister came in here and said: 'It's not too much.
It's only 3.2 million older Australians and 1.2 million pensioners. They're only paying, I don't know, $250 more a year. That's nothing for an older Australian.' But it's $800 more a year and $1,600 if you're a couple.
He's saying: 'It's only 70c a day. Older Australians can afford that 70c. It's fine.
Not many people are impacted at all. There's nothing to see here.' That is rubbish. That is an atrocious way to treat older Australians who have worked so hard for this country, and, in their older age, the minister is saying: 'You can afford that 70c a day.
You can afford $800 more in this cost-of-living crisis. Don't worry about putting the heating on this year. You can put up with the cold.
Don't worry about putting the air conditioning on. You can put up with the heat. Just pay more.' Older Australians have given us so much.
It is an absolutely disgusting way to treat older Australians. The government didn't even bother to work out how many of them are pensioners until stakeholders forced them to. Now we know that 1.2 million older Australians—that is not a number to be flicked away or to be dismissed.
The government keeps claiming this is about fairness. They claim to be fixing generational inequity. The rebate is already based on income though.
Higher earners already receive less. Keeping older Australians in private cover is exactly what takes the pressure off the system. In Western Sydney, our public hospitals are bursting at the seams.
Private health insurance helps our public hospitals. Now we're going to put more pressure them, and the health minister is absolutely happy to do that—happy to charge older Australians more, happy to put more pressure on our public hospitals, happy to extend the waitlist for surgeries, happy to put this pressure on older Australians. Right now, our system recognises something simple and fair: older Australians use more health care, and, as a country, we want to keep them under private cover, not push them into an overstretched public system.
But under this government we'll pay more. Premiums are going to be jacked up simply because they're over 65—punishing them for living longer, punishing great older Australians for achieving so much in their lives. We're going to punish them for living longer.
Let's be clear about where the coalition stands. We believe in a strong private health system working alongside a strong public one. We support genuine reform.
We support real transparency, so patients know what they will pay before they walk through the door. The coalition will not stand for this proposed change. We will stand up for older Australians.
We reject this government's false choice between funding aged care and supporting older Australians with private health cover, because we care about older Australians.