Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When a government runs out of money, it quickly tells you who it thinks should foot the bill for its wasteful spending, and, under this Labor government, the answer is becoming very clear—older Australians. Labor has fired the gun on intergenerational warfare. This is a government that speaks the language of fairness while practising the politics of division. It says one thing before an election and does the opposite after. It promised Australians relief and, instead, it's delivered pressure. It promised lower costs and, instead, it's delivered higher taxes, higher health bills and higher anxiety for people who have worked their whole lives to stand on their own two feet.

Older Australians are not asking for special treatment. They're simply asking for the government to stop changing the rules after they've structured their retirement on them. First, Labor's coming after their private health insurance. Australians over 65 who did the responsible thing, who planned ahead, took pressure off the public system by maintaining private cover, are now being told that they should pay more. More than 1.4 million Australians will be hit with premium increases of up to $640 a year. In my own electorate, more than 1,400 older Australians have contacted me to tell me that they may be forced to cancel their cover altogether. That will not just hurt them; it'll push more people into an already stretched public hospital system.

Then Labor's coming after aged care by expanding the GST to include aged-care living fees. These so-called optional fees are not optional for the people who rely on them. Providers will pass on the costs, and older Australians will pay more at one of the most vulnerable stages of their life.

Labor promised no changes to the GST before the election. Now, older Australians are finding out what that promise was worth. Now we see the introduction of a death tax by stealth. After a lifetime of work saving, sacrifice and contribution, Labor's reaching beyond retirement and into what Australians had hoped to leave behind for their families. Let's call this for what it is: this is Labor punishing older Australians because they don't vote for them. This is not reform. It's not fairness; it's a tax raid dressed up as policy. Australians don't want carve outs to Labor's toxic taxes; they want them axed.

Older Australians built this country. They raised families, paid taxes, started businesses, volunteered in our communities and carried the responsibilities that made Australia strong. They do not deserve to be treated like a source of endless revenue. They deserve respect, they deserve certainty and they deserve a government that remembers this one simple truth: you do not strengthen Australia by punishing the people who built it.

See this speech in context