Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Government to immediately reverse its harmful treatment of older Australians, including its decision to gut the private health insurance rebate for Australians over 65, impose a flawed algorithm on aged care needs assessments with no capacity for human override and bury a so-called 'widow tax' in rushed legislation, which together demonstrate a profound disregard for the dignity, security and contribution of older Australians.

I stand today to speak on this urgency motion because I believe it should be the opinion of the Senate that this Labor government is waging a war on older Australians. I am pleased to move this urgency motion standing in my name; it's an urgency motion that calls out the Labor government for waging a war on older Australians through higher taxes, higher healthcare costs and reduced aged-care support. Older Australians are being hit with a triple whammy—an $11 billion cut to the private health insurance rebate which impacts over-65s; a flawed aged-care assessment algorithm that puts a computer, instead of a person, in charge of somebody's assessment being introduced into a system that is already seeing blowouts in wait times and waitlists; and a hidden widow's tax that strips Australians of the promised grandfathering protections when they are at their most vulnerable.

Labor's $11 billion rebate cut is a tax on older Australians who have spent decades paying for their own private health insurance. From April 2027, couples over the age of 65 with gold cover will pay up to $1,614 more per year—a 21.3 per cent increase; the largest increase on record—and the government admits it doesn't even know how many of the 3.1 million older Australians who will be affected are pensioners. But we know that over 50 per cent of these people are likely to be pensioners, because National Seniors have already estimated that 55 per cent of those 3.1 million Australians who will be impacted will be pensioners.

Many older Australians will have little choice but to absorb the costs, because they rely so heavily on their private health care. Older Australians disproportionately hold gold and silver policies covering procedures like joint replacements and cataract surgery. Losing cover means longer waitlists in our public hospitals and greater pressure on our public health system.

There's Labor's aged-care assessment algorithm. It's an assessment tool that allows assessors to collect information, but the algorithm, the computer, is the one that makes the decision that determines the funding. Assessors have no ability to override incorrect outcomes, even when the clinical assessors' professional judgement says the decision is wrong.

Since the rollout in November 2025, almost a thousand older Australians have sought reviews to challenge the outcome of their assessment. Thousands of older Australians have had care reduced or been found ineligible, despite their worsening health conditions. The Inspector-General found that only 0.1 per cent of cases are classified as urgent, even for people with advanced dementia or motor neurone disease. The Commonwealth Ombudsman is investigating this algorithm, following thousands of complaints. The Inspector-General of Aged Care, and peak organisations, including OPAN, COTA, MND Australia and the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine, have all called for human override. This week, we, in this chamber, have the opportunity to be able to put that back in, and I hope everybody in this chamber supports that.

And there's the 'widows tax'. Under Labor's new CGT and negative gearing laws, Australians were promised that their existing assets would be grandfathered if held on budget night. That promise was another cruel hoax from Labor. Buried in Labor's legislation, which it rushed through the parliament with the Greens, was a provision stripping grandfathering provisions and protections from Australians who lose a partner through death or divorce, or who are fleeing domestic violence. Because ownership structures change, the protections disappear—at the very moment when Australians are at their most vulnerable.

Whether it's higher taxes, higher health costs or denying older Australians the care that they have been assessed as needing, Labor continues to make life harder for older Australians. This Treasurer has got no idea about the details of his budget. This government has got no idea about the details of legislation that it has jammed through this place.

There's one thing you can be assured of: we will stand on the side of you, older Australians, who deserve a more dignified retirement and ageing process than this government is prepared to give you. The Labor government have declared war on older Australians. Older Australians deserve policies that will support them, not punish them. That means that we need to make sure that Australians get the care and the aged-care support that they need, and that they should not be taxed when they are at their most vulnerable.