Labor’s New Health Hit Could Cost Seniors Thousands Every Year

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Let's uh get some further thoughts on this budget debate with the member for Fisher, former speaker of the House of Reps Andrew Wallace. Andrew, thanks as always. You're running a campaign specifically on this issue of uh of removing the discount on private health insurance for seniors. The government says this won't lead to any dramatic exit from private health in that cohort. Are they wrong?

[00:00:27]Well, I think uh people who's over 65 that are in private health insurance at the moment, they're the same people that were told decades ago by government, uh invest in private health insurance and it'll be there for them when they get older and when they need it most.

[00:00:42]Uh this is a a reckless step by this government and it's a quite a heartless step by this government to to try and effectively rip those concessions away from people when they need private health insurance the most. It's going to cost a couple on the the gold standard of private health insurance an extra $1,600 a year in their premiums.

[00:01:05]Uh give you an idea, I'm running a a petition at the moment which I'd encourage all your uh your viewers to to get on my website and sign.

[00:01:14]But we had doubled we had 800 yesterday.

[00:01:17]This morning we've got 1,600 people who signed that petition.

[00:01:21]Uh people are very very angry about this and rightly so. We've even had small uh private hospitals saying this could be the death of of the their own viability if people start leaving private health insurance in significant numbers. The reality is uh whether you're a a self-funded retiree or whether you're a pensioner, you're on a fixed income. A lot of people aren't going to be able to afford that extra $1,600 on top of everything else that they're paying in extra and they have to make some tough decisions.

[00:01:52]Do we want to eat? Do we want to go out for dinner or or do we do we do we do we keep that private health insurance going? Uh some tough decisions for older people.

[00:02:03]Indeed, it's not a not an easy time for for many people in in the society right now. As for the capital gains tax changes though, the government says they are negotiating, they are consulting with the business community as as part of the implementation here. And it sounds like they're open to be to be flexible. Do you welcome that flexibility on this is the treasurer says they're trying to remove distortions from the tax system.

[00:02:33]It's total rubbish, Kieran.

[00:02:35]I don't accept their their their views that they are, you know, trying to you know, be consultative with the business community. Anybody who jumps on social media right now, the social media craze of the last couple of days has been welcoming the Prime Minister as the business equity of just about every business operating in Australia. I was in a coffee shop this morning.

[00:02:59]A number of people came up to me and expressed how angry they are about these changes that the government said that they wouldn't bring in.

[00:03:09]This is a sheer it is a total unmitigated tax grab.

[00:03:14]This concept of intergenerational equity, it's total BS. They've run out of the government's money and now they're looking for our money for for small businesses money, for mom and dad's money. It's totally wrong. They lied. They absolutely lied to the Australian people. They took they didn't take this to the last election. At least Bill Shorten had Well, when you say it's BS though, lost. Tell me tell me what you mean by that because the government points out that younger voters younger Australians, not just voters, younger Australians are struggling to get into the housing market.

[00:03:49]Is Is not a reality?

[00:03:51]Yeah, this isn't going to help him that Kieran. I mean that that it of the I haven't listened to an economist yet that hasn't said this is going to increase rents. Now, one of the biggest challenges for young people when they're buying a home is being able to save a deposit whilst they're renting.

[00:04:10]And what these changes are going to do by by just about every economist I've listened to if not all of them is that this is going to have upward pressure on the cost of rent. So, it's going to make it harder for people to save money while they're paying more money in rent. That is a fact. And also, we know we've I think I said this to you a couple weeks ago. We've read this book before. We we know how it ends. Uh changes to negative gearing didn't work back in the in the '80s. It it lasted less than 2 years before Paul Keating had to reverse it.

[00:04:46]Um Look, I have not spoken to anybody, not one person in Fisher or anywhere else in the country that has been happy with this budget. Uh there are a lot of angry voters out there uh and and they should be angry because they've been deceived by this government and no matter what and no matter what they say from here on.

[00:05:12]>> Yep. Okay. I appreciate that. We'll catch you next week when Parliament returns. Thank you, Andrew Wallace.

[00:05:16]We've got to keep moving on now.

[00:05:17]Authorized by Andrew Wallace, LNP of Bonnerina Queensland.