Transcript: Tasmania Mornings with Leon Compton, ABC Hobart - 7 May 2026

TRANSCRIPT

TASMANIA MORNINGS WITH LEON COMPTON, ABC HOBART

7 May 2026

Topic: Labor’s harmful cut to the private health insurance rebate

E&OE…………………………………

LEON COMPTON: On Mornings, Anne Ruston is the Opposition Health and Age Care Spokesperson. Anne Ruston, good morning to you.

ANNE RUSTON: Good morning, Leon.

LEON COMPTON: What sort of stories are you hearing from around the country about this proposal?

ANNE RUSTON: Look, exactly the same stories as you've just heard from Anne. People, older Australians, many of them who are on average and below average incomes who have scrimped and saved for the only discretionary spend that they have in their lives is to keep their health insurance, who are now faced with that terrible decision that they no longer can afford their private health cover just at a time when they're most likely to need it the most. And so, Anne's story just depicts the same stories that we're hearing right around the country, and it is really devastating because I know from speaking to older Australians that the most important thing for their security and peace of mind as they get older is knowing that they've got access to healthcare.

LEON COMPTON: The counter argument is that this is a case of intergenerational equity. Why is it that over 65 should get a discount when a 35-year-old who's less likely to use their health, who might similarly be struggling to afford a house, to raise a family – why should health insurance be more expensive for one than the other?

ANNE RUSTON: The reality of this decision by the Federal Government and the intergenerational inequity argument is an absolute con, because the Government is basically pushing older Australians into the public system, so it moves the cost to the taxpayers who by definition are younger working-age Australians. I mean, Mark Butler himself admitted last Friday on ABC Radio that for every dollar older Australians spend on private health insurance, they get $3 back. So for every older Australian who drops their private health insurance, the $3 that was previously being picked up by the private health insurers will now be picked up by the taxpayer. That's younger Australians, younger working Australians, are going to pay for this measure. This is not a savings by any stretch. It's just moving the deck chairs around on the accounting page.

LEON COMPTON: Anne Ruston is our guest this morning, Opposition Health and Aged Care Spokesperson. You're on Mornings. Great to have your company. Delay still on the Tasman Bridge, looks like they're abating. Anne Ruston, can I just introduce you to a woman who's given us a call just now. Anne's in Blackmans Bay. Anne, good morning to you.

CALLER: Good morning, Leon.

LEON COMPTON: Anne, if this change goes through, what will the consequence be for you?

CALLER: Well, seriously, I will have to cancel the private health because it's over $200 a month now and all my working life I have been in private health and it's been terrific but this is just too, too hard. You know, we're on a pension and things are going up and up and up and I've been very, very happy with the private health. It'll mean having to rely on the public system, which is in a big enough mess now and I think I'm not on my own.

LEON COMPTON: And can you talk, if you wouldn't mind sharing, how challenging it is for you to find the private health money in your income, in your family budget each month?

CALLER: Well, it is hard, yes. It means you've got to go without other things.

LEON COMPTON: Anne, appreciate you coming on this morning. Thank you for sharing your story.

CALLER: Thank you.

LEON COMPTON: If you'd like to share yours, 1300-222-936 is the number. Anne Ruston is our guest, Opposition Health and Aged Care Spokesperson. "Currently, I pay $176 each fortnight in private health," says Phil this morning via text. "The benefit of keeping older people in the system is that it takes a big burden off the public system. It's simple," says Mandy, listing in in Spreyton this morning. "G'day Leon, my private costs will increase. My generation's better off than all these younger, I accept that. There is an alternative in public hospital care. We can't have everything we had 40 years ago," says Heather in Hobart this morning. Anne Ruston, thank you for sticking with us. So, you clearly as a party have no appetite for supporting this as a measure when it comes to the floor of the Parliament?

ANNE RUSTON: Well, we've already called on the Albanese Labor Government to reconsider this decision, because all of the stories that you have just read out, and the many more that people are coming in with around the whole of Australia, tell the story that this is going to have a devastating impact on older Australians, but it's also going to have a devastating impact on our already overburdened public health system and our hospitals. So the Federal Government needs to reconsider this and we will be calling on the Federal Government to do so. And I noticed this morning that your health minister in Tasmania has also called on the Federal Government to reconsider this, because as she points out, this is just a cost shift from the Federal Government Budget to the states and territories. Taxpayers are going to end up forking out more. This is a false economy and the Government does need to reconsider it and we will be continuing to put pressure on them for them to do so.

LEON COMPTON: Anne Ruston, I appreciate you talking with us this morning.

ANNE RUSTON: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

ENDS