Health minister understands change to private health insurance rebates for seniors ‘unwelcome’, but says they are necessary
The health minister, Mark Butler, said he understands changes to private health insurance rebates for older Australians have left many seniors troubled, but said it was “difficult to sustain” a system that benefited people based on age, but not on income.
If legislated, the budget would remove subsidies that encourage people over 65 to take out private health insurance. Australians aged 65-69 would see their rebates cut from 28% to 24%, and those 70 and over would see their rebate cut from 32% to 24%. The savings would be funnelled back into aged care.
Butler said he understood it was an “unwelcome change”, but added:
We’ve taken this hard, but I think responsible decision to re-equalise, if you like, private health subsidies based on household income rather than household age, and putting every single dollar we save there back into aged care. …
I know it’s unwelcome to many, but at a time of real challenge in our budget and the need to find every dollar we can into aged care, we just took the view that where there are two households next door to each other on the same income, paying them a different subsidy for their private health insurance simply based on age was not sustainable.
Restricting welfare to citizens not ‘punishing’ but ‘incentivising’, shadow minister says
The shadow immigration minister, Jonno Duniam, has said Angus Taylor’s budget reply proposal to limit welfare payments only to Australian citizens was not a punishment for permanent residents but a way to “incentivise that pathway to Australian citizenship”
ABC 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson asked Duniam how does “punishing tax-paying permanent residents appeal to would-be migrants that the country so badly needs?”
Duniam responded that “countless” people who have migrated to Australia and have become wealthy because of the opportunities have not been punished, and people like them who want to come won’t be punished either.
He said:
But they’ll still have to wait under the visa system a number of years, in almost all cases, to receive the kinds of welfare benefits that you are talking about.
And in many cases now, under Labor’s current approach, there are wait times between 4 and 10 years for various supports that people may want to take advantage of.
So this is not about punishment, but it is about trying to incentivise that pathway to Australian citizenship.
He said the Coalition is pro-migration, noting Australia’s ageing population, but says that “we want to determine who is coming here [and] in what number”:
We want to ensure that we have houses for them to live in.
And can I say, we want to preserve, for those who eventually become Australian citizens – which I hope is all of them that want to come here – the services that we provide in this country.
That’s a pretty pro-migration policy, if ever I’ve seen one.
But there will always be critics, and they will say what they say.
Good morning, it’s Nick Visser here again to dive into this gloomy Tuesday, in Sydney at least. Here’s what’s on deck in the news:
More than $57bn of infrastructure in Victoria is at risk due to climate hazards, according a new study. An independent adviser assessed risks to government-owned or regulated assets, and found many were exposed to climate hazards. By 2070, the value could rise to more than $71bn.
A flood warning remains in place for the Nerang and Coomera Rivers in the Gold Coast after moderate to heavy rainfall in the region since Sunday night, and there are reports of flash flooding across roads. Rainfall is forecast to continue into Tuesday, with further river and creek level rises and flooding expected, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
We’ll bring you more soon.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
