Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

Labor says it is helping with the cost of living, but this policy directly increased the cost of health care for older Australians. Labor says it supports Medicare, but this policy risks putting more pressure on crumbling public hospitals around the country. Labor says it cares more about older Australians whilst directly targeting those aged over 65. Labor says this is about fairness, but it is simply unfair to increase the cost of health care for pensioners and retirees on fixed incomes. Labor says this is about strengthening our health system, but this policy weakens one of the pressure valves that helps keep health care moving in Australia.

These aren't just arguments that we make here in a hypothetical sense. These are the experiences we are hearing from constituents in our own electorates. Take Margaret and Glenn from Bunbury. Glenn's a Vietnam vet, and Margaret, now at the age of 85, is a stalwart volunteer for the Bunbury Soup Van. Margaret has written to me, at her wit's end, unsure about how they are going to make ends meet with this massive hit to the cost of their private health insurance—a cost that they as Australians chose to wear because they wanted to do the right thing. They wanted to be in private health insurance so that, when they needed help, it was there for them, at their own cost. This is another cost-of-living hit from a government that, on one hand, tells Australians that it understands the pressure that they're under, but, on the other, does everything in its power to make life more expensive.

Many Australians over 65 aren't wealthy. They shouldn't be thrown on the scrap heap of victims from this budget of betrayal built on Labor lies, higher taxes, higher debt, more migrants and fewer homes. At a time when insurance premiums, groceries, power bills, council rates, medicines and out-of-pocket health costs are already going up, Labor's answer is to make private health insurance even more expensive for older Australians. We believe that those older Australians deserve dignity, certainty and access to the health care they need, not to be victimised in yet another budget raid dressed up as reform.

Labor want to frame this as intergenerational fairness, but there is nothing fair about forcing older Australians, many of whom are on fixed incomes, to pay more for their health care. They've worked hard, paid taxes, raised families, built communities and contributed to our country. This shouldn't just be another budget line item to be scratched out by Jim Chalmers' pen. This measure, in particular, is nasty. It pits younger Australians against older Australians in the divisive politics of this prime minister when the real issue is Labor's failure to manage its own spending and relieve pressure on households.

A fair health system in Australia should have both public and private health care. We must have a safety net for all Australians, but it shouldn't punish those Australians who can and do do the right thing by taking pressure off the public health care system. Every person who drops or downgrades their private health insurance in the wake of this budget raid, which of course was never ventilated in the election campaign—there was no public commitment that if Australians voted for the Albanese government this is what they would get. This is another Labor lie in the budget of betrayal. It means more pressure on public hospitals, longer elective-surgery waiting lists, more pressure on EDs and more stress on doctors, nurses and, of course, the ambulance paramedics parked outside hospitals because they simply can't get their patients in—in some cases for eight, 10 or 12 hours at a time.

Public hospitals across this country are already stretched. The last thing that they need is a policy from Canberra that pushes more Australians into the public queue. This is a classic Labor cost shift from a government that is addicted to spending. The Commonwealth books are saving, but patients, families, states and public hospitals are left to deal with the consequences and, inevitably, the cost blowouts that flow from that. The private system isn't separate from the public system. It helps to carry the load in Australia. Weakening private participation risks the sustainability of the entire health system in Australia. So let's see from this government— (Time expired)

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