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

I rise in support of the member for Mallee's MPI—and I want to acknowledge the great work that she does in this space—and in support of my friend the member for Hinkler, with the egregious exception of the member for Hinkler's talk about people aged 65 being in the twilight of their years. I am in the twilight of my late 30s—that is what I tell my kids!

All jokes aside, this is a very important issue because Australians who've worked hard, paid their taxes and planned carefully for retirement are being asked to pay more and more and more under Labor. The Albanese government wants to impose an $11 billion hit on private health insurance by ripping away the additional rebate for older Australians. Couples aged over 65 with gold cover could be slugged by up to $1,614 extra every year from April 2027. That's a 21.3 per cent increase. For a retiree on a fixed income, that is not loose change; that is groceries, heating, insurance and fuel.

Patricia from Dicky Beach in my electorate is a retired widow living on the age pension. She contacted me. She told me that she and her late husband had made sacrifices all their lives to keep private health insurance because they valued continuity of care and wanted to help keep pressure off the public system. Patricia has worked out that Labor's changes will cost her more than $1,000 every year. She fears that many retirees simply will not be able to afford to keep their cover, and I agree with her. And when they drop that cover they don't stop needing health care. We know that they will go onto the public system. That's why three state health ministers—for Queensland, Tasmania and even New South Wales, a Labor health state minister—have said that this federal Labor policy is going to be disastrous for the state's health systems—

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