Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) | Hansard source

but you and I both know that we were told when we were youngsters, 'Invest in private health insurance and look after yourself. The benefits will flow if you get sick. You get your choice of doctor. You can go to a private hospital. You don't have to go on a waiting list. You don't have to wait for years to get a knee replacement or a hip replacement.' I'm not wishing that on you, Deputy Speaker. But that's what we were promised. We were promised that those concessions for private health insurance would last into our later years, when we need it the most—and I'm getting there.

A lot of my constituents in Fisher—it's an old electorate—are getting there or they're already there, and they feel ripped off. A couple on gold private health insurance will be paying up to $1,600 a year extra in their premiums because of the decision by this government to rip away those concessions. Shame on this government. These are people at their most vulnerable, our aged—when they need private health insurance the most. These people have been paying premiums for decades, and now this government says, 'We're not going to worry about that anymore. We're just going to change that. If you can't come up with the money, you go onto the public health system.' Well, that'll work well for the states, won't it? That'll work well. It'll blow out waiting times.

People in Australia are very angry with this government, and they have every right to be.

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