SENATOR THE HON ANNE RUSTON

SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE

SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

MEDIA RELEASE

Monday 14 September 2026

LAZY MINISTER, LAZY LEGISLATION: LABOR’S $1.6 BILLION PENSIONER CASH GRAB

New Parliamentary Budget Office modelling has confirmed almost half of Labor’s $3 billion cut to the private health insurance rebate, close to $1.6 billion, will be ripped directly from the pockets of age pensioners, exposing why the Government fought so hard to keep its own modelling secret.

The revelation comes after Health Minister Mark Butler repeatedly claimed there are “no lazy savings” left in the Budget.

Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator Anne Ruston said the impact on pensioners was not a side effect Labor stumbled into but was the substance of the policy.

“This is lazy legislation, backed by lazy assumptions, and from a lazy minister,” Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Senator Anne Ruston said.

“Minister Butler wants Australians to believe every dollar of this cut has been carefully considered. Instead, we’ve learned he built an $11 billion tax on older Australians over the decade without bothering to find out who would actually pay it.

"Under pressure from older Australians and their advocates, we find out the answer is pensioners.”

Parliamentary Budget Office analysis has found around 1.5 million pensioners hold private health insurance and will be hit by the cuts to the age-based PHI rebate, due to take effect from next April.

“This is not a partisan issue, it is simply bad policy. The community sees it, stakeholders are saying it and now the states are against it too.

“It gets worse. As recently as December, Minster Butler told Deafness Forum Australia that older Australians could rely on their private health insurance rebate to help afford replacement cochlear implant sound processors. Four months later, he cut that very same rebate.”

In correspondence to Deafness Forum Australia, Mr Butler pointed seniors card holders to the PHI rebate, worth a 28 per cent discount for those aged 65 and over and 32 per cent for those aged 70 and over, as a legitimate avenue of support for replacing cochlear implant equipment.

“The Health Minister is so cynical that he told vulnerable older Australians to rely on this rebate for their cochlear implants, only to pull the rug out from under them a few months later,” Senator Ruston said.

Labor’s own modelling concedes around 44,000 Australians will drop their private health cover as a result of the cuts. The real number is likely more than double that, with more still set to downgrade cover rather than drop it altogether.

New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory have all raised concerns about the flow-on pressure to public hospitals, while the Queensland and Tasmanian Governments have called for the cuts to be scrapped altogether.

“Labor needs to scrap this $11 billion tax on older Australians, for the sake of the pensioners being pushed to the wall, the public hospital system already under pressure, and the taxpayer, because these cuts will end up costing the health system more than they save,” Senator Ruston said.

Senator Ruston called on the Greens to stand against Labor’s lazy tax grab on Australian pensioners and to support the Coalition in opposing this Bill.

ENDS

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