Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator Ruston, which is also shown at item 16 of today's Order of Business:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

"The Albanese Government promised cost-of-living relief but is now slugging around 3 million older Australians with higher private health insurance costs, leaving hundreds of thousands of pensioners to either pay more in a cost-of-living crisis or abandon private cover altogether, while shifting even more pressure onto our already overburdened public hospitals and leaving working age taxpayers to foot the bill."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

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

I stand up today to condemn the Commonwealth government, the Albanese Labor government, for a decision to punish older Australians with a higher tax—that is, by removing the additional support they get to maintain their private health insurance over the age of 65. These are older Australians who have paid their private health insurance all of their lives, and this is the time when they need it most. Many of these people are pensioners, and the only thing they are spending any discretionary income on is the maintenance of their private health insurance, because that allows them to sleep at night and allows them to know, if something happens to them—we know that the older you get the more likely you are going to be dependent on the healthcare system to look after you. At this very time, this government, through its own budget failures, is seeking to use the money and peace of mind of older Australians to fix up its budget mess. This government should be absolutely ashamed.

What is even worse is that this is a complete and utter con. The government will tell you tonight they're supposedly going to save $3 billion for taxpayers over the four years of the forward estimates, but we know that's not true. This has got to be the mother of all cost shifts that I have ever seen. By taking people out of the private system, where they're paying for their own health care, and putting them into public system, you are just shifting the budget bottom line from the federal budget to the states and territories.

What makes it even worse is that the independent Finity report that the government received said this measure would actually be a net cost to taxpayers. It is going to cost taxpayers more to shift Australians out of the private system and into the public system than what the government is currently spending on the little bit of support it gives to older Australians to encourage them to keep their private health insurance. It is a complete and utter con, and Mark Butler, the Minister for Health and Ageing, knows this, because on Friday a week ago he told ABC radio that, for every dollar an older Australian invests in their health care over the age of 65, they get a $3 return on the private health that they receive in return. That means, for every older Australian who drops their private health insurance and the $1 they are investing, the $3 that's currently paid by the private health insurer will be picked up by the taxpayer.

The other piece of rubbish that this government is going on with is this idea that somehow this is redefining intergenerational equity. It's pitting one generation of Australians against another, but the worst of it is it is completely false. You're pushing older Australians who are currently paying for their own private health insurance into the public system, and the people who pay for the public system are working-age taxpayers. They are, by their very definition, younger Australians.

This government knows that this measure is false on both accounts. It will not save taxpayers money; it will cost taxpayers money. It is not some sort of intergenerational-equity smoothing; it is actually forcing younger Australians to pick up the healthcare costs of older Australians who will no longer be able to afford to pay for their health care. They will basically be taxed more by this government's decision that will be in its budget tonight and was announced by Minister Butler at the Press Club a couple of weeks ago. This is blatantly the federal government using older Australians to somehow take the blame and fix the mess of its budget failures. It has to be the worst piece of policy I have ever seen. It's the biggest public policy con that we have seen in this country for a very long time.

To make it worse—but pretty typical of these guys—there was no consultation whatsoever with anybody at all. Nobody knew this was coming until Mark Butler stood up and made the announcement. This is what this government has an incredible track record of—making great big headline announcements with no substance underneath them, no definition about how they will deliver them, and no consultation with anybody who will be impacted by them. In this instance, the peace of mind of older Australians and the security of their health care as they get older is the price the government is willing to have them pay for its budget failure.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An emerging theme in the lead-up to this budget has been the issue of intergenerational fairness. I thank Senator Ruston for her contribution, for her long service and for her commitment to health reform in this country. But this issue of intergenerational fairness must be addressed. Right now, if you are 70 years or older, you will get 32 per cent back on your private health insurance. However, if you are a 25-year-old or a 30-year-old or a 50-year-old, you will only get 24 per cent back. We on this side don't believe it is fair to divide Australians based on age. What we are doing is repealing this benefit first introduced by the Howard government off the back of the mining boom 22 years ago. As someone who has practised in health care in public hospitals I can tell you that I did not see with the introduction of this policy any reduction in pressures on public hospitals. There was no reduction. Public hospitals emergency department pressures have only increased as has throughput over the period of time this policy has been in place.

There is an interesting report from the National Rural Health Alliance from their snapshot in 2025. It lays out starkly the spend we make on public hospitals. From 2022 and 2023, we spent around $85 billion in public hospitals—state and Commonwealth. In contrast, in community care and public health, we spent around $20 billion; general practice, $15 billion. This is all back to front. This hospital-centric model of health funding has led to the issues that we currently see. We as a Labor government are now trying to redirect funding and skew it towards community care. That happens by strengthening Medicare. The foundation of our health system is not hospitals. Hospitals are reactive places that react to emergencies. But if you start mending the fence at the top of the cliff, you start to see a completely different picture emerge, where we reduce the pressures on public hospitals. A fine example of that is our urgent care clinics.

In our first term of government, we brought in this new model of care called the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic. We currently have 137 around the country as we gun towards over 150. These have been visited by three million Australians, a third of them children. They are open from early until late. They see a range of patients. You can have diagnostics done—bloods. You can have imaging done and it is all bulk-billed. We have seen from our own evaluation a 10 per cent reduction in emergency department presentations. That is how you reduce pressure on public hospitals. That is how you do it.

In addition to that, we have invested a historic amount—$8.5 billion—back into bulk-billing. This kicked off on 1 November last year, and what did we see? Like magic, this is working, exceeding our expectations. We have seen now over 3,700 general practices around the country adopt bulk-billing. We now have a metric where 97 per cent of the population live within a 20-minute drive of a bulk-billing doctor. When we came in, bulk-billing was in freefall—about 75 per cent. 'Freefall' was the language used by college of general practitioners—not by us but by them. We have now seen an uplift to 81 per cent in the first quarter of this year, the highest it has been in 20 years. This is how you reduce the burden of chronic disease, by making it easier for older Australians who carry that disease burden to see their doctor. The backbone of the health system is not your hospitals. The backbone of the health system is general practice.

We are also strengthening Medicare by boosting the number of early-career doctors who are entering general practice. For the first time this year we will see more than 2,000 junior doctors enter general practice training. Half of those doctors will be training in rural and regional Australia. That is how you fix our health system.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ruston for this motion, which One Nation supports. Currently, all Australians get a rebate on their contributions to private health insurance. For the people under 65, it is 24.1 per cent, for those 65-69 years of age it is 28.1 per cent and for those over 70 it is 32.2 per cent. These are adjusted for income. Minister Butler described the system as 'not fair between generations'. The government has announced the additional amount paid to our elderly will be removed, making everyone equal. How very communist and how self-defeating. The rebate is higher the older you get, because the cost to the taxpayer of a person moving from private to public care is higher the older they get. The extra payment encourages older Australians to stay in the private health system and save the taxpayers from having to carry the full cost of their health care.

Across forward estimates, this measure will cost taxpayers—including young people—billions more than it saves, and it will put more pressure on public hospitals already dealing with bed block and long waiting times. Our young people will not always be young. A measure that helps more than three million older Australians today will help younger Australians tomorrow.

The Albanese government is promoting division in order to set one age group against another. How dishonest! Classic communism! This is the politics of envy, designed to cover up the real reasons young people are struggling, which are immigration, net zero, grocery prices, energy prices, inflation—destroying industry, making lives harder and robbing our young of the opportunity to own their own homes, to enjoy the life that my generation enjoys. To pitch to younger voters, start there. Introduce negative immigration until housing and infrastructure catches up, reducing house prices. Terminate this net zero madness and let business get on with creating breadwinner jobs that provide a future for our young.

Intergenerational wealth transfer is a term that is a furphy, a lie, a dishonest diversion. Labor is crippling the young. In reality, this is an excuse from Labor to increase taxes on people with assets who, after a lifetime of work, are the older generations. Remember, today's young adults are the future older people. This aims to hit all Australians, including the young. You will eventually get hit. This is a lie that is masquerading to steal more taxes. One Nation will unwind this petty, dishonest, counterproductive measure. We are one nation, one community and One Nation will not set one Australian against another.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, the reality for the Australians after four years of the Albanese government is that they're doing it tougher than ever before—not because of bad luck, not because of global forces beyond anyone's control, but, sadly, because of choices, deliberate choices made by the Albanese government in Canberra. Australians are now living with those consequences each and every day.

But what do those consequences look like in real life? What has this government actually done to Australians? In the first instance, you wouldn't want to be a mortgage holder in this country under the Albanese government. You are now paying $29,000 more on your mortgage. That is right—the average family under Mr Albanese is paying $29,000 more per year on their home loan than when Labor was elected. There have been 15 interest rate rises under the Albanese government. The Reserve Bank has been very clear: our inflation is being driven by decisions of the Albanese government.

Then, of course, there was the promise on energy bills. What did they say when they were trying to buy the votes of Australians? 'We will reduce your energy bills by $275.' The bad news for Australians is this: they have risen by 32 per cent. That promise never materialised and is long gone. Insurance costs are up by 42 per cent. In Australia we have experienced the highest and the biggest fall in living standards of any developed nation on Earth—not in our region but in the world. And the debt count is heading towards $1 trillion of debt for our kids. That is $50,000 a minute that we are paying just in interest under the Albanese government.

Then tonight they're about to slug millions of Australians even more. In other words, the pain you are already feeling is going to get a hell of a lot worse tonight, when the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, opens his mouth. On top of everything, on top of all that pain, tonight the Albanese government is going to cut the private health insurance rebate for every Australian over the age of 65. Australians need to think about that. Who is the face of that? Well, it could be your mum and dad, or it could be your grandparents—people who have worked diligently all their lives, who have paid their taxes, who have been responsible and taken out private health cover. Why? Because they did not want to burden anyone else. They have been paying their premiums year after year after year, decade after decade after decade. I thought we'd be thanking those people. Yet tonight, because the Albanese government wouldn't know how to manage an economy if it fell over it, those people are going to be punished for that responsible decision. This happens to be the reality.

Up to 3.2 million older Australians will be affected by the decision tonight to cut the private health insurance rebate. And 400,000 pensioners are going to be directly hit tonight. That could be an additional $1,614 for a couple on gold cover every single year. That's what you will now pay. It will be $807 extra in costs for an individual each year, a 21.3 per cent premium increase—the biggest rise on record. We're in the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, and tonight this government will smash our pensioners and ask them to find an additional $807 if they're single or up to $1,614 for couples. That is the biggest premium increase on record. The reality for those people is that they're going to drop their private health cover, thanks to the Albanese government. And do you know what then happens? They move into the public hospital system. And then what happens? Elective surgery waitlists get longer. Then what happens? Working-age Australians and taxpayers foot the bill. This is complete madness. Quite frankly, the pensioners of Australia deserve better.

Josh Dolega (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate on Senator Ruston's motion, and I'd like to start off by echoing the words of my colleague Senator Ananda-Rajah and thank her for her very intelligent and considered approach and her expertise in this field. It goes to show that on this side we have a caucus with people of all walks, who have all sorts of information from their backgrounds, and from the medical profession we've got an absolute gem with us.

We know that as people get older their needs change and trips to the doctor become more frequent, medicines become part of their daily life, and the healthcare system becomes something they rely on even more. For older Australians in particular, that reliance comes down to one simple question: can I access the care when I need it? The truth is, not long ago, too many Australians were asking exactly that. When we came to government in 2022 it had never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor. Bulk-billing was in freefall after a decade of cuts and neglect of Medicare. For pensioners and retirees in particular, that mattered.

That's why the Albanese Labor government has been investing in Medicare, because Medicare is built on that simple principle: health care should be accessible, regardless of your income, your age or where you live—and that matters more, not less, as Australians get older. That's why strengthening Medicare has been the Albanese Labor government's priority. We're not just maintaining a system; we're rebuilding it, we're strengthening it and we're making sure it works for everybody, especially those who rely on it the most.

In our first term, we got to work. We delivered more bulk-billing, more doctors and cheaper medicines. We opened 87 Medicare urgent care clinics across the country. For older Australians, that has meant something practical. It means being able to see a doctor without worrying about the cost. It means having somewhere to go for urgent care without sitting for hours in a hospital emergency department. It means knowing the system is there when you need it. But we do know that there's more to do. That's why we've been making the largest investments in Medicare in over 40 years. We've put in over $8.5 billion to rebuild access to care. We've restored bulk-billing to ensure Australians and older Australians can see a doctor when they need to.

Again, I'll echo the words of my colleague, Senator Ananda-Rajah: keeping people out of hospital and preventing the need to go to hospital matters—having care where people can access it and where they need it at an affordable level with just their Medicare card. We're already seeing more practices move to fully bulk-billing. Who would have thought? These things don't just happen by accident; they happen because Labor governments implement the policies to give people access to the essential services that they need. We are investing in the GP workforce that supports that care. We're training more GPs, and we're bringing more doctors into the healthcare systems because access isn't just about affordability; it's making sure that healthcare providers are available for every Australian.

Our Medicare urgent care clinics are also making a real difference. In Tassie, we have got fantastic clinics across Burnie, Devonport and Launceston and around the greater Hobart area. They are making a difference. They are accessible. People can get to them within 20 minutes. It's incredible. Medicare urgent care clinics have been taking the pressure off the hospital system. They've been reducing the demand on emergency departments so hospitals can focus on that critical care. At urgent care clinics, people can go in and get that care that they need, whether they've fallen off their bike and they need to get patched up or they've been bitten by an insect and had a reaction. Urgent care clinics are there for you. They have extended hours, and you can just walk in.

And then there's medicine, and older Australians know a lot about having medicines. My nan in particular used to have quite a lot. Under the PBS, scripts are frozen at $25. But, for seniors and concession card holders, that's $7.70 until the end of the decade. Australians have saved more than $2.6 billion on the costs of their scripts thanks to Labor and our commitment to making medicines cheaper. That makes a difference, and it means that people aren't forced to choose between paying a bill and filling a script. It means that they can stick to the treatment plans and achieve better health. Labor is taking action to keep people healthy and have the care that they need.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

People across the country are struggling to get basic health care. Some are stuck on waiting lists. Others are living in pain, racked with the worry of what happens if things get worse. Right now, people are putting off going to the doctor or to the dentist because they simply cannot afford it. Parents are skipping their own appointments so that their kids can get dental care. Pensioners are living with chronic pain. Young people are ending up in emergency departments with preventable dental infections. And this is happening in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Public waiting lists are getting longer while private health care becomes even more expensive. It shouldn't be the size of your bank account that decides what health care you can access. For years, governments have ignored the growing crisis in public health funding. Public hospitals are overcrowded. Mental health care services are pushed beyond breaking point. Finding a bulk-billing GP can feel impossible. Community health organisations are underfunded, and dental care is still excluded from Medicare. Dental care is health care. It is not a luxury, yet this government continues to treat it like one. While ordinary people put off seeing the dentist because of cost, the federal government keeps handing out corporate giveaways and refusing to make the wealthiest one per cent pay their fair share of tax. The priorities are completely wrong. We should be investing in bulk-billing, in public hospitals and in mental health care and we should finally bring dental care into Medicare. No-one should have to choose between paying rent and fixing a tooth.

Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With grave concern about what will be contained in tonight's budget, I rise to speak on the coalition motion. From leaked documents and media reporting, it can only be assumed that Australians are facing yet more broken promises, along with more and higher taxes. One of these is the reckless decision, pre-emptively announced by the Minister for Health and Ageing several weeks ago, that the Albanese Labor government intends to reduce the private health insurance rebate for policyholders aged over 65.

For many older Australians, including many in my home state of Tasmania, holding private health insurance is not a luxury. It is how they access timely and affordable care when they need it most. This change, which those opposite are attempting to frame as an issue of intergenerational equity, ignores the context and reasons the rebate was higher for this cohort in the first place: older Australians access the health system more frequently and generally have lower incomes.

This decision will hit Australians in the hip pocket—Australians who deserve our respect, after spending years and, in many cases, decades paying for private health insurance, in line with government policy at the time, only to now see that support ripped away. Analysis by Private Healthcare Australia has laid bare the damaging consequences of cutting the private health rebate for over-65s. The decision will harm around 3.2 million older Australians, including hundreds of thousands of pensioners living on fixed incomes. That analysis shows couples aged over 65 with gold cover could face additional costs of up to $1,614 a year. This would represent the largest increase in private health insurance costs on record, right in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. It is effectively a new tax on older Australians.

This issue is particularly acute in Tasmania, where the population is older than the national average and many seniors live on low fixed incomes. Tasmanian health insurer St Lukes found that, among affected members, one in four has an income of less than $30,000 and three in four have an income of less than $55,000. This puts into sharp context the claims from those opposite that this is merely about fairness. In reality, it will disproportionately impact older Australians with lower levels of disposable income. The Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Tasmania, Bridget Archer, has stated that this decision was deeply concerning and would force many older Tasmanians to downgrade or to leave private health insurance altogether, forcing them into the Tasmanian public health system. She has also claimed that, much like we're seeing with Tasmanians stranded in our hospitals and GP access, this is yet another cost shift from the Commonwealth government to the states, with Tasmanians to suffer as a result.

Framing this decision is one of intergenerational equity is a slap in the face to older Australians—and their families—who have worked hard throughout their lives and made significant contributions to our economy. Families caring for older parents and grandparents want and need their loved ones to receive timely and affordable care. If private health insurance helps deliver that care, they should be supported, not blamed for this government's failure to properly invest in aged care. Older Australians are not responsible for government's shortfall in aged-care infrastructure. That responsibility rests squarely with the government itself. Knee-jerk bandaid measures such as cutting the rebate, introducing new aged-care co-payments and rolling out AI driven assessments will not deliver the reform the aged-care system needs. Instead, they will further disadvantage older Australians who are already struggling to make ends meet.

Labor's treatment of older Australians could not be clearer. Indeed, Minister Butler attempted to bury this announcement beneath a National Press Club speech on the NDIS, seemingly in the hope that no-one would notice. You do not hide good policy. The reality is that older Australians' health will pay the price for this decision. It is no exaggeration to say that many will be forced onto public waiting lists because they cannot absorb the increased costs of private health insurance. Yet public hospitals across the country are already overstretched and overburdened. This shift will lead to longer elective surgery waitlists, more ambulance ramping and poorer health outcomes.

For older Australians, timely and affordable access to care can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. Medical treatment can be life saving and life extending for many. For Labor to frame this decision solely around intergenerational equity is misleading and fails to recognise its real-world consequences. This is not just about numbers; it's about people's health. This is yet another broken promise from a Labor government that claimed it would ease the pressure on public hospitals. Australians do not deserve a budget of broken promises and high taxes tonight.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I now move to attendance by a minister.