SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE
DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE
SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH LAURA JAYES, SKY NEWS

19 February 2026

Topics: Cumberland mental health hospital incident, private health insurance premiums, hospital pressures, Liberal leadership

LAURA JAYES: Anne, you heard the comments from Pat McGorry there. You’ve seen this story about Cumberland Hospital in particular. This comes hot on the heels of this review into the stabbing at Bondi Junction that involved Joel Cauchi. Pat McGorry just says it needs to be a bigger priority at a federal level and at state levels as well. That’s fair enough. Is it beyond us?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I mean, I think the point that Pat was trying to make, and I entirely agree with him, is that you can’t just look at isolated incidents, because they’re part of a system failure that is letting down Australians who have more complex mental health challenges, which we saw at Bondi and sadly now we’ve seen again. But we need to actually be working better — all levels of government, whether it be federal government, state governments, and the local community providers — to make sure that we actually are providing the support and the health needs, or the health responses, to the needs of Australians and I think we just seem to be sort of picking things off in ad hoc sorts of a way. We look at a hospital or we’ll look at a facility. We actually need to be looking at what’s actually going wrong with the system.

And last week we saw the Prime Minister just hand over 25 billion additional dollars to the states and territories for hospital funding as an example. Where was the reform that was required as handing over that money? It just looked like they were handing over $25 billion to shut the states and territories up. So, I think we do need to actually have an honest conversation about the structural changes that we need to have a health system that’s fit for purpose for 2026 and beyond. Instead of continuing to try and tinker around the edges with a health system that was probably fit for purpose in 1980, and we’ve just sort of made a few changes along the way. I mean, real reform takes a lot of bravery, and I just don’t think we’ve seen that.

LAURA JAYES: No, it doesn’t. And it goes to the whole health system as well. The mental health system needs to sit as a big component within that. In recent days, we’ve seen a 4.4% increase in private health insurance premiums. I remember a time where Greg Hunt used to stand up in the blue room, announce this every year and take the curly questions that have come. It feels like this Government has tried to do it under the cover of darkness. It goes to the problems and the pressures on our health system, but it also goes to the state of the economy, doesn’t it?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, absolutely. I mean, you can’t look at the increase in costs for private health premiums without actually having a look about why it’s happening, and it’s happening because of a failure of economic management in this country. You were talking earlier with Ross about some comments from the Reserve Bank, or the previous Reserve Bank Governor. It’s basic supply and demand economics 101. If you have constrained supply, you increase demand, prices go up, and that’s what’s happening on an economic front here. The economy — inflation is going up because we do not have the capacity to meet the demand that we’re stimulating in our economy. And the same thing is happening with the private health insurance premiums. They are the victim of an economy with runaway inflation.

And ultimately the problem will end up being that when people decide that they can no longer afford their private health premiums, they’ll end up in the public system. And we already know the public system is under incredible pressure. The ramping has never been worse, elective surgery waiting lists have never been longer, older Australians are stuck in hospitals because they can’t get access to the aged care that they needed in residential care or at home. I mean, this is a crisis that everybody can see is coming. And the Government just seems to be turning a blind eye to it and just blaming random people. It’s always somebody else’s fault. It’s never actually a problem that the Government’s prepared to roll its sleeves up and do something about so we can solve it so Australians can continue to get access to the world class health system that we currently have.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah, look, and we have to talk about the new look team as well. Of course, you’re a leading moderate. You’ve kept your shadow portfolio, but you’re now one of only five women in the lower house. Are the moderates willing to get on board with this new team? I know a lot of conservatives have been rewarded, particularly in economic portfolios, but is it now a cohesive team or is it going to take a little while? And what do you say about there being only five women in the lower house?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, I’m actually one of the women in the upper house, but yes, there are only five in the lower house. But, I mean, I can only speak for myself, and I’m absolutely committed to the role that I’ve been given. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to continue to be the Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care because, quite frankly, I think it is one of the most important areas of Australian public policy that has been neglected for a very long time, and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to continue to build the policy work.

But I think Angus and Jane have hit the ground running. I’m really keen to support them. I’ve always been somebody who believes the team is bigger than any individual and so my support goes to my party and therefore the leadership team that sits at the top of that party. And I hope everybody else will do that too because, quite frankly, I think Australians are sick to death of listening to us talk about ourselves. Their lives are being severely impacted by the terrible policies of the current Government and they want us to hold them to account and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

LAURA JAYES: Anne Ruston, really appreciate your time today. We will speak soon.

ENDS