LABOR WON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER – AND OLDER AUSTRALIANS ARE PAYING THE PRICE
Apparently, when the Albanese Government doesn't like the answer, it simply asks the question again.
Less than 24 hours after the Senate delivered a resounding rejection of Labor's assault on older Australians' private health insurance rebates, Health Minister Mark Butler was back in Parliament introducing the very same legislation.
The arrogance is astounding.
Yesterday, the Coalition, the Greens and independent senators stood together to stop Labor's rebate cuts, with the Senate voting 38 to 23 to remove the Bill from its agenda.
Today, Labor decided that message wasn't worth listening to.
Not the Senate. Not its own concerned backbenchers. Not the thousands of Australians who signed the Coalition's petition. Not the health organisations warning about the consequences.
Just who does this Government think it answers to?
Labor has turned parliamentary democracy into a game of political stubbornness, where the Senate's verdict is treated as an inconvenience and the only opinion that matters is the Government's own.
Across Dawson, I've personally responded to hundreds of emails and met with older constituents terrified of what these changes could mean for their finances.
I promised them I would fight this assault on their retirement security. And the Coalition has fought it every step of the way.
Labor's proposal would remove the additional private health insurance rebate available to Australians aged over 65.
For some older couples, that could mean paying more than $1,600 extra every year. Around 3.2 million older Australians would be affected, including pensioners and self-funded retirees who have spent decades planning carefully for retirement.
These are people with limited disposable income.
They are Australians who have worked, saved, paid their taxes and maintained private health cover, often precisely because they don't want to become another patient waiting months for treatment.
Yet Labor wants them to help deliver $3 billion in Budget savings over four years.
The Government calls this equity. I call it an assault on older Australians who have done everything right.
And the consequences won't stop at their bank accounts.
The Government's own modelling reportedly anticipates up to 78,000 fewer older Australians holding private health insurance by 2029–30 than otherwise expected.
Where will many of those patients go?
Into public hospitals already struggling with elective surgery waiting lists, ambulance ramping and exhausted healthcare workers.
This is cost-shifting dressed up as reform. State governments, taxpayers, nurses and doctors will be left managing the consequences.
Minister Butler called the Senate's decision an "absolute travesty".
I would suggest the real travesty is expecting pensioners to shoulder another financial burden while refusing to reconsider a policy that has attracted such widespread opposition.
The Coalition attempted to stop the legislation being brought back through the House this morning, with Dan Tehan moving to suspend standing orders. Labor pressed ahead.
It's Groundhog Day, except older Australians are being asked to pay for every repeat.
There is a disturbing habit developing in this Government: announce a controversial policy, dismiss the warnings, ignore the backlash and press ahead regardless.
What sort of Government looks at a pensioner struggling to afford their health insurance and decides the problem isn't that they're paying too much, but that the Government isn't taking enough?
Older Australians deserve better than a government that treats their concerns as an inconvenience.
The Senate has spoken. The community has spoken. Labor should listen.
And if this Government insists on continuing its assault on older Australians' retirement security, the Coalition will continue fighting it every step of the way.
ENDS
Contact: Amanda Wright | Media & Communications Adviser
P | 07 4944 0662 M | 0455 456 705 E | Amanda.Wright@aph.gov.au