Anne Webster
Mallee · National Party · Australia
“The government's first duty is to protect its citizens and, arguably, its most vulnerable citizens—in this case, children. Today that duty extends into a digital world, where the playground has actually moved online and where too often it is unpoliced and unsafe.”
“We know that, despite the ban, large numbers of children are still accessing these platforms because enforcement has been weak and the regulator has not been given the tools it needs.”
“They worry about exposure to violent content; harmful algorithms; cyberbullying; scams; predatory, paedophilic behaviour; and the relentless pressure that social media can place on young people's mental health. These concerns are real, and they deserve to be taken seriously.”
“For many young Australians, social media is where they access news, educational content and creative learning. It's where they stay connected with friends and family. It is where they participate in their communities and engage in public debate.”
“My constituent asks that there be some sort of agency or protocol where these accounts can be collated, investigated and closed where applicable.”
“Labor rejected it and then, in the 2024 budget, accepted it. We pledged in June 2024 that we would deliver the under-16s social media ban, which Labor, thankfully, copied.”
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“Where is the minister on this? Why does it matter so little, while the government is expending and building debt like there's no tomorrow? A trillion dollars of debt is what Australians are going to be paying for into the future. If I hear a spiel from the Treasurer tonight about intergenerational equity and fairness, I tell you what: I will go spare. I will have to control myself because I'm in the House, but I am so done with this argument. It is our young people who are going to be paying off this debt into decades to come. The way this Labor government has treated the people of Australia on an ongoing basis is a disgrace, and for the Treasurer and the Prime Minister to gaslight Australians is unbelievably poor. (Time expired)”
“Whoever thought that was a good idea ought to lose their job. The fact is that I have a deaf man who is 80 years old and who had his assessment for functionality done on the phone. Who thought that was a good idea? They've done the assessment, and now he's on a waitlist. This goes on and on under this Labor government. It cannot manage its portfolios, and it is the people in the regions who are particularly suffering. The Commonwealth Home Support Program—I could go on about this all afternoon. The reality is that even gardeners and the people who would clean your home are not around; there is no-one out in the regions who is able to do this. So we have elderly people who don't want visitors coming to their homes because their grass is up to their doorhandle and because their homes are filthy. They can't clean them.”
“I heard what Minister Rae had to say during question time—that there are over 230,000 people waiting for Support at Home, waiting for their Commonwealth home-care package. In the regions, there is no-one to deliver those services. We have aged-care providers who are saying to potential elderly clients 'sorry, our books are full; our books are closed; we'll get back in touch with you when we've got a space'. What are they doing? Are they actually waiting for people to die—is that the plan?—because there's not enough money in the Commonwealth Home Support Program? Two hundred and thirty thousand people waiting is just not good enough. And I can assure you that in my electorate of Mallee they have been coming to tell me so. We have assessments being done with AI, for crying out loud!”
“The fact is that these people have been paying their taxes all their lives. They now get to 65, when they just might require more medical intervention, and, as pensioners, they are now going to be having to pay potentially up to $1,000 extra. There will be so many who exit the private health fund for their own needs. They've been responsible all their lives, and now guess what? They're going to have to rely on the public health system. I don't think that's a good move. I just don't think that's a good move, and I don't think anyone in that situation is going to think that's a good move. Minister Butler is going to be ripping $3 million from private health consumers for aged care. What for? It's for beds, for home-care packages.”
“Today is an incredibly important day. It is budget day. We're all hanging out, waiting to hear what the Treasurer is going to bring to us. I've compiled a playlist especially for tonight using some of the Prime Minister's top songs. I'm not going to sing them. It's okay! Songs include 'nobody held back', 'nobody left behind', 'no-one worse off in aged care' and don't forget the old faithful 'my word is my bond'. Well, they have been clearly broken. They have been broken, every single one of them, especially in regional Australia. I want to start with the private health rebate. This government has run out of its own money to spend and therefore is coming for, in this instance, our older folk, our over-65s. It is raiding the private health fund to, apparently, pay for aged care a little bit later.”
“It is a government that is acting to preserve its status rather than acting in the interests of all Australians. That is my deep concern. We belled the cat yesterday on a crazy plan to expand the number of MPs in parliament. My goodness me, that was tone deaf, absolutely tone deaf. There is no way that the Labor Party can walk away from this. The negotiations were happening. We know they were happening. Don Farrell, the Special Minister of State, made the statements last week, so we know that it was on the table. The Prime Minister then said, 'No, no, no.'”
“You are the Prime Minister and you have a cabinet who should be working with everyone to sort out these issues. These are complex issues. Nobody is denying that. But there are people who are being left behind, and they are people in regional Australia. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said he will leave no-one behind, but I would argue that he is absolutely leaving regional Australians behind. Of course. we called for the halving of the fuel excise on Friday. We also called for the road user charge to be dropped. By Monday, finally, the Prime Minister came forward and said: 'Oh, guess what we're going to do. We're going to halve the excise, and, in agreement with the states, we're going to drop the road user charge.' And tonight I dare say we will hear from the Prime Minister about his next steps.”
“What fills me with dismay is that this Prime Minister and his cabinet do not understand that farmers and the trucking industry ought also to be in that critical user list. That's because, if our trucks stop, Australia stops. If farmers can't get their seed into the ground then it doesn't grow. And guess what? It doesn't make food, and they can't harvest it. Fuel is essential for our farmers. On top of that, urea is essential for our farmers. What is this government doing about it? Well, a little too little, too late, frankly. I would say that, right from the get-go, this prime minister has failed the leadership test, from the fact that he turns to us in the coalition, time after time, and says, 'Well, what's your solution? Come to me with your answers.' No.”
“Well, from panic buying to, apparently, tonight at 7 pm, a panic address by a prime minister who is really struggling to pull the narrative back to 'he's in control'. This MPI is about leadership and the PM's failure to lead. I do have a few pages here that might address that issue, but I really want to look at one. I asked the Prime Minister today in question time about the National Fuel Security Plan and whether he could tell us who will be classified as critical users. Well, he couldn't. He wasn't happy about the question and sat down. We asked it again, and we finally found out that it is emergency workers, as you would expect—the police, the SES, the ambulance and the firies. And we understand all of that.”
“Safeguarding is not achieved by forcing vulnerable people to navigate opaque systems simply to access the supports they need. A sustainable NDIS depends on trust, trust that decisions are fair, transparent and grounded in real understanding of disability and place. This bill fails that test. The coalition supports an NDIS that is compassionate, accountable and sustainable, one that respects professional expertise and puts people before processes. That is not the NDIS being delivered by the Albanese government.”
“The bill introduces no direct regulation of the 94 per cent of providers who remain unregistered, and while it moves toward fully electronic claiming, it provides insufficient safeguards for vulnerable participants who face real digital barriers, particularly in regional and remote communities. If electronic systems are expanded, they must come with human oversight, alternative access pathways and clear enforceable rights of appeal. This bill does not provide that assurance. This legislation is titled the Integrity and Safeguarding bill, yet for too many participants, especially in regional Australia, it delivers neither. People with disability are not data points. Their lives cannot be flattened into computer generated budgets and automated decisions. Integrity is not achieved by centralising power and removing accountability.”
“Labor's changes to travel payments for health professionals have made it harder for providers to service regional clients, and that was before fuel prices surged. Allied health professionals are already withdrawing services they can no longer afford to deliver. Without providers, NDIS plans are meaningless. Access on paper is not access in practice. Regarding the bill at hand, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill 2026, it purports to strengthen integrity and safeguarding, but it avoids the most obvious integrity failures in the system. The government has been unable to clearly quantify the scale of fraud in the NDIS.”
“Labor has struggled to improve fiscal sustainability without undermining service quality or participant trust. In regional Australia that failure is being felt most acutely. I regularly hear from constituents across my electorate of Mallee about their experience with the NDIS. More often than not, they are seeking advocacy after being overwhelmed by a system that feels remote, inconsistent and unresponsive and that, frankly, does not work. Participants and families come to me distressed not simply because of funding outcomes but because of how decisions are made and how long they take to be made. Names have been changed to protect privacy, but the experiences are all too real. These changes come at a time when allied health access in regional Australia is already under strain.”
“The Albanese Labor government was elected with the Prime Minister repeating his mantra: 'Nobody held back. Nobody left behind'. Yet here we are, being left behind in regional Australia. Labor's promise is ringing increasingly hollow. Nowhere is Labor's scorched earth approach to regional Australia more evident than in their administration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, very sadly. There is no doubt the NDIS has been a nationally transformational reform for Australians living with significant and permanent disability. It has enabled greater dignity, independence and choice. But the success of the scheme depends on public confidence in its sustainability, its governance and its integrity. On those measures, this government is falling short.”
“Regional Australians should not be asked to accept unsafe roads because local governments cannot afford the fuel and materials required to fix them, yet that is exactly what is happening and the fallout does not stop with council services. In West Wimmera, people live vast distances from essential services. There is no free public transport—thank you to the premier. Rising fuel costs and a lack of fuel are forcing pensioners, volunteers and families to make impossible choices. Leanne from Kaniva told me: I have had to cancel an appointment … because I can't get diesel from our local roadhouse, for tests that can only be done in Horsham. She was referring to medical care. West Wimmera Shire Council has told me that people across their region are pulling back from community sport and stepping away from volunteering roles. (Time expired)”
“Australia imports 80 to 90 per cent of its liquid fuel. When costs rise, regional communities—already at the end of their long supply chains—are hit hardest and fastest. David, the CEO of West Wimmera Shire, has made it clear to me that skyrocketing fuel and bitumen costs are forcing council to defer desperately needed road maintenance. Bitumen prices have surged as much as 35 to 40 per cent, creating a road safety crisis. Regional councils are already financially stressed, and in Victoria the condition of regional roads is, frankly indefensible. Potholes stretch as far as the eye can see. Delaying repairs increases risk, putting motorists, freight operators, emergency vehicles and school buses—and, therefore, human lives—in danger every single day.”
“Labor's fuel supply crisis is undermining road safety, local government services and community life in regional Australia. In Kaniva, Goroke and Edenhope in the south-west of my electorate of Mallee on the Victorian and South Australian border, the West Wimmera Shire Council can no longer afford basic road maintenance. Bitumen is too expensive. Communities are cutting back on essential travel and regional Australians are being left behind despite the Prime Minister's promise to the contrary. Liquid fuels do not power just cars and farm machinery. They account for nearly half of Australia's total energy demand, and are essential to farms, productivity, construction materials and, critically, bitumen. When fuel prices surge and supply tightens, the damage spreads quickly and deeply through the economy.”
“This is the pattern that we are seeing time and time again from this government—lost in the waves in the ocean of despair because it really doesn't know what it's doing. We will see a shortened debate today, for sure, and the bill sent to the Senate so that we have laws passed by Good Friday. Today's measures, we hear, will come at a $2.55 billion cost for three months. Let's not forget that the Commonwealth and, in turn, the states have gained $300 million in GST receipts since the crisis began, and it's pleasing that the states are considering what they're going to do about that. But we have meeting after meeting—”
“Australians are doing it tough. Mortgages continue to increase—$28,000 on an average mortgage. How do people get through this? This is not about politics. This is about how Australians are finding life right now, without a clear message of hope in front of them. The Albanese government, by contrast, have accused Australians of panic buying—and they were still doing it today—while they have been panic legislating. We can only say that this Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Strategic Reserve) Bill 2026 is another piece of 'quick, let's get it out the door by tonight'. The Prime Minister said, 'Let's just get it moving.' Hardly any Labor members are speaking on it because of the urgency.”
“Removing the road user charge for heavy vehicles impacts the trucks on the road. Earth moving, basically, as far as I understand, is on land; therefore, it won't incur that cost. I'm happy to be corrected on that. But these are still very difficult times for businesses and companies. We have citrus growers who are really thinking twice about whether they will harvest their citrus, because it uses so much fuel to do so, and then to get it to market—the agents down there are saying, 'We can't afford to buy it at that price because we can't sell it afterward.' So we have fruit, we have vegetables and we have crops at risk. And this is a time of great difficulty for Australia. Not only are we going through a cost-of-living crisis but inflation continues to rise and we expect another couple of rises, potentially, in this next month.”
“I want to congratulate the government and the Prime Minister for today doing precisely what the coalition recommended, on Friday, that he do. It only took four days, after four weeks of not a lot happening—a lot of meetings, but not a lot happening. We called for the halving of the fuel excise and the reduction of the heavy-vehicle road user charge. In fact, this last week I've spoken with the Trucking Association and I've also spoken with the bus industry; both were very concerned about the costs that they were incurring. In my electorate, nine earth-moving employees have found themselves without a job this week because the employer cannot pay what he's being required to pay for fuel. Twenty-six cents a litre—yes, we suggested it; we think it makes a difference.”
“This is because they've already got messages from their agents at the markets that they will not be able to sell the fruit at the price that it costs farmers to get that fruit to market and then to the shops. The outcome here is not great for Australians. From paddock to plate—the Albanese government needs to learn what that is about.”
“If gaslighting were an energy resource, this Albanese government could light up the nation, while it plunges into the abyss of their incompetence. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy are constantly telling Australians to stop panic-buying fuel. In other words, it's everyday Australians who are the problem. I have a report for the Prime Minister—that is not true. It is the incompetence of this government that is the problem. Today we have the government panic-legislating on the ACCC and trucking. I want to tell a story, very briefly, about citrus growers in my electorate who are, today, having to make the choice on whether to actually harvest their crop. They are deciding that they probably will not be.”
“I don't think that we can overestimate the poor decision-making and the poor processes that this government have put in place. They are late to come to the table, late to call the meetings—they're pretty fond of meetings; I've got to say. They love having the roundtable to have the discussions. What decisions are being made? 'Oh, we'd better rush and make some legislation that looks like we're doing something.' Australians are going to wear the cost of the failures of this government into the future. Who knows how long into the future? I am deeply worried about farmers who are choosing not to pick fruit, farmers who will not grow crops. Everyday Australians and families trying to put food on their table will be wearing the cost of the incompetence of this government.”
“What we have now is a panicked government who is making last-minute decisions to throw in legislation, of course, in an omnibus fashion—always. 'Let's throw this in, and let's throw that in.' And, if we, the opposition, don't approve it, then it's all on us. You know what? The previous speaker just blamed the coalition for the mess that Australia is in. No, we will not accept that. This is absolutely Prime Minister Albanese's problem to fix. As for the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, where do I start? Last week—'No problem at all with supply.' Three days later, suddenly we've got a fuel crisis. Did we see that coming? If only somebody had told him! So now we are trying to mop up the mess that Labor have created.”
“Prime Minister Albanese needs to understand that, if people cannot afford their groceries and they cannot afford vegetables, they won't buy them. Guess what happens when Australians don't eat fresh vegetables and fruit. You know what. They get sick. So our health prices will also go up. The amount of trouble that people in the regions have trying to get health services now—many of them are having to drive to get to those health services. I had a woman write to me this week who said that she cancelled her health appointment because she couldn't get fuel to put in her car to get to see her doctor. Great! Just fantastic—all under the Labor government. The Labor government need to stop blaming Australians, and they need to take responsibility.”
“It is not the panic buying that has caused this today. Today I just got off the phone from one of the farmers. He happens to have a small fuel depot in Robinvale. He has just told me that he's talked to citrus growers in my electorate who are literally in the process of deciding whether they will take the fruit off the tree to deliver to market or not. We hear today that one in five farmers is making the decision not to sow a crop. What is this Labor government doing about it? Well, you know what? They're panic legislating, finally getting the ACCC to do their job, and they're allowing truckies to put their prices up according to the fuel they're paying for. Great! Guess what. There is a flow-on effect, Labor.”
“What we have heard from the Labor Party for the last two weeks is that people should stop panic-buying. It's apparently Australia's fault that we don't have the fuel that we need. We should stop panic-buying. What we are actually seeing today is the Labor government, under Prime Minister Albanese, panic-legislating. That's what they're doing. They're panic-legislating because they have been left flat footed. People in Australia are going through a cost-of-living crisis. They have had energy bills go through the roof. Inflation continues to rise. Interest rates on mortgages continue to rise. Rents continue to rise. And now we have trucks who cannot deliver and are at risk of folding their small businesses. This absolutely lies at the feet of the Albanese government. It is not Australia's fault that this is happening.”
“They have got a handle on their own businesses. They know what this fuel crisis and this trade deal—and every other idea that comes out of Labor—is actually doing to their industries.”
“In regional Australia, we cop the brunt of these great ideological dreams that Labor have thought up and the EU are part of, and now they're going to be trading away farmers' opportunity to farm. Brett Hosking, Mallee farmer and VFF president, said: At a time when farmers are getting smashed by devastating water buybacks and skyrocketing fuel and fertiliser costs, we've been hung out to dry for the sake of getting the deal done. That says everything about this EU trade deal. Garry Edwards from Cattle Australia said: The deal that has been struck is simply appalling for agriculture and regional Australia and delivers nothing to address the trade imbalance to the EU. When have you heard a peak body call a deal 'appalling'? It's that bad. Farmers are smart. Farmers are very smart. They have got a handle on trade.”
“The sector is standing up—every member of the ag sector, whether it's the NFF, whether it's the VFF, whether it's the cattle people. I have a farmer in Mallee, Andrew Weidemann, who has said this: … exactly what I thought might happen. It's trading away— that's the government— our right to farm and we, as grain growers, livestock producers will just be taxed more to meet the green economy. Now, why would that be so? It's because this EU trade agreement is actually connected to the Paris Agreement, and it's connected to the EU standards, which, frankly, don't work in Australia, and to the renewable rollout in Australia, which is harming our farmers already.”
“We've got childcare deserts, we've got terrible roads and we've got shire councils struggling to stay afloat—in fact, they're not staying afloat. It is a cost-of-living crisis that is worse out in the regions. There are mobile black spots and grey spots. Honestly, I could go through almost every portfolio represented by the government. In every one of them, we are being let down in the regions, but I particularly want to focus on the EU trade deal. Yesterday the government was spruiking the EU trade deal as being the best thing since sliced bread. Newsflash: it's not. It's absolutely not, and, as the shadow minister for agriculture mentioned earlier, people out in the regions know it. The primary producers know it.”
“People in regional centres in particular are being left behind every day, and because I have the Minister for Health and Ageing sitting right here I have to begin with health. We still have workforce shortages in regional areas. We have urgent care clinics—the member for Lyne is constantly talking about Taree. What about Taree? We still don't have an answer from the minister about that. We have people who cannot get the care they need and people who cannot get the aged care they need. Now we're in a fuel crisis, and we heard today in question time from the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors: 'Look, we've kind of got a plan to get workers out to see people who need home-care packages. We just haven't really got any boots on the ground yet. We haven't got any actual solutions.' People are being left behind every day.”
“I just cannot start this speech without responding to the member for Wills and his extraordinary narrative there, particularly his point that the coalition are basically whipping up the panic buying. I take absolute exception to that. It is complete rubbish. What we have is farmers who need 20,000 litres of fuel in order to spray their hectares and 30,000 litres of fuel to seed their crops. They need fuel and they need urea. These are facts that the minister did not refer to. This is not about the coalition whipping up panic buying. People need fuel to live their lives. 'Nobody held back, nobody left behind'—that's what the Prime Minister has said over and over again. Do you know what? If it was true and that was actually happening, we would be very supportive, but the fact of the matter is that that is not what is happening.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. I refer to his statement earlier that there were almost 500 service stations which have run dry. This morning, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said: 'My very strong view that I took to National Cabinet last week is that any consideration of supply management should be coordinated at a national level.' When will the minister take action to ensure fuel gets to where it is needed?”
“The truth is that Australians are now facing the highest out-of-pocket costs on record to see a doctor, which are only predicted to keep rising—if you can find a doctor in the regions. The coalition is focused on ensuring that all Australians have timely and affordable access to essential health care. In stark contrast, Labor is only focused on using Medicare as their political plaything.”
“That's where the rubber hits the road under this government—or doesn't hit the road, you could say—on women's health in regional Australia: inaccessible health care and poorer health outcomes because of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Research conducted last year by Redbridge showed around 30 per cent of people referred to a medical specialist over the past three years did not attend, due to concerns about the cost. At the worst possible time, Labor is slugging Australians with higher private health insurance premiums while families are already struggling to pay their bills. Once again, we see the real impact of Labor's lies on Australian families. The Prime Minister waved around his Medicare card many, many times and told Australians it would be free to see a doctor.”
“Australians are making the difficult decision to avoid seeing a doctor because they simply cannot afford it or wait two or three years. In rural, regional and remote Australia, delaying or avoiding treatment is particularly dangerous because we already have higher morbidity and mortality rates than metropolitan people. I have Mallee constituents who tell me they are avoiding treatment for lethal conditions because they cannot afford or bear the long, regular trips to a specialist–and forget paying for the petrol to get there. One lady, a constituent from Kaniva, told me that under Labor's fuel supply crisis her local petrol station didn't have fuel, so she couldn't make it to her health appointment in Horsham.”
“To ensure we preserve Australia's private health system, the coalition believes the legislation requires careful scrutiny through a Senate inquiry. Labor's reckless spending and economic mismanagement is pushing up costs across the board, and health care is another victim of that. The out-of-pocket cost to see a GP skyrocketed to more than $50 under this government—the highest level on record. Out-of-pocket costs for specialist appointments are also spiralling out of control. According to the government's own most recent Medicare data for specialist attendances, the bulk-billing rate was 28.2 per cent, with an average out-of-pocket cost of $123.48. For anaesthetics, the bulk-billing rate was 8.7 per cent, with an average out-of-pocket cost of $244.99.”
“Private health insurance funds about 50 per cent of private hospital revenue, yet large insurers have significant market power in contract negotiations with hospitals, despite record profits. Private health insurers' failure to pass through adequate premium payouts to cover real costs is the core driver of private hospital distress, threatening the entire private-public balance. When the private system has less capacity, the public system bears the brunt. This circumstance and the failure of the health minister to act on it must be called out as part of the debate on this bill. The coalition supports ensuring greater transparency in healthcare pricing and the need to help consumers make informed decisions about their health care and obtain better value from private health insurance.”
“There's an interdependence between private hospitals and the private health insurance sector. Private hospitals in Australia are under acute financial strain, with operating profits plummeting and 82 closures in the last five years. While utilisation of private hospitals is now above pre-COVID levels, insurer benefits pay-out ratios are stuck at around 84 to 86.3 per cent, which is well below the pre-COVID 90 per cent benchmark and federal Minister for Health and Ageing's target. Rising operational costs, driven by wage increases, the cost of agency staff—of which there are many and a plethora in regional centres, I might point out—medical devices and inflation have not being matched by revenue growth.”
“By contrast, primary health care is becoming unaffordable under Labor—a bit like fuel—with bulk-billing collapsing 11 per cent, and there have been 40 million fewer bulk-billed GP visits in the past financial year alone. Let's remember too that 14 private maternity wards have closed under the Albanese Labor government. That is shameful. You have to wonder whether the combined effect of premium increases, policy downgrades and private hospital service closures and the reduction in private health cover is, as the Minister for Home Affairs likes to often say, 'by design' to undermine confidence in private health cover. Remember former minister Plibersek once bragged at a press conference: 'Every promise I made, I paid for. How did I pay for it? I paid for it by targeting private health insurance.' I'll bet she's proud of that.”
“However, importantly, Canstar noted that the cost of individual gold policies rose by an average of 11.6 per cent between March and April, despite the previous year's approved average being just 3.73 per cent. Canstar predicted last month that it's highly likely more Australians will downgrade their hospital cover on the back of Labor's private health premium increase. Naturally, Canstar recommended Australians shop around for the best deal. Before the pandemic, the former coalition government approved an average industry premium change of just 2.92 per cent in 2020, which was down about 50 per cent on Labor's last year in office. In government, the coalition supported more than 15 million Australians taking out private health cover at the lowest cost in more than 20 years.”
“Consequently, the Ahpra data shows the biggest dip in cover is for those aged in their 20s. But then, as the 31st birthday looms for lifetime health cover, LHC, the rates pick up again. I note that, during this cost-of-living crisis, in February the Albanese government approved an average premium increase of 4.41 per cent, effective in a week's time on 1 April, the largest rise in seven years. Of course, at the time it was announced, it was above the rate of inflation, not so anymore. For context, Canstar says that a 4.41 per cent increase equates to annual costs rising by $167, but, for families on an average priced gold hospital policy, premiums will rise by $330. Even families on bronze cover will cop a $120 increase this year under Labor.”
“Hospital treatment out-of-pocket costs on private health rose from $437 to $471, up 7.7 per cent year on year to December 2025, whereas general treatment only rose from $59 to almost $63, still a 5.6 per cent increase but not as dramatic. Notably, in the last report reporting data, the demographic dropping hospital treatment insurance, if you exclude those over 80 years old, is people aged 20 to 24 years. Why would that be? Over 5,000 Australians dropped their hospital cover in just one quarter. You can picture it, can't you? mum and/or dad say, 'Keep your hospital covered,' but, as a younger person leaves home and tries to pay the rent and make ends meet, they dump the cover—because of course they're invincible, as we all know!—and don't think they need it.”
“The latest quarterly private health insurance membership and benefits data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, or APRA, shows that now only 45.6 per cent of the population have hospital-level private health cover, with the number of policies over that reporting comparison year falling by 150,000 and the number of insured persons falling by 287,000. That's despite the number of hospital treatment episodes rising by about 90,000 cases. Critically, in this cost-of-living crisis, the out-of-pocket costs per hospital treatment episode have risen more significantly than the cost of general treatment, like extras.”
“It is understandable that the government wants to take steps to prevent 'phoenixing' to maintain confidence and affordability in gold-tier private health insurance. I note the AMA states it supports Medical Costs Finder and supports transparency, as we all do—or should—though the government likes to claim transparency but is often lacking in that area. Informed choices are the best choices when it comes to medical care, and, in a cost-of-living crisis, being financially informed before making choices to access private health care is actually essential. The AMA also noted that 68 per cent of private health hospital policies now contain exclusions such as pregnancy, joint replacements or cataracts.”
“In December 2025, a media release in relation to the AMA Private health insurance report card stated: In further warning signs for the sector, gold-tier policies are in decline as consumers face rising premiums and cost-of-living pressures. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the number of gold-tier policies have dropped by 360,000, despite the overall number of policies growing. The AMA noted that the number of Australians with gold-tier cover has now fallen to just 743,000 across Australia. That five-year slump represents almost one-third of Australians with gold-tier cover abandoning that cover. I mention this because, as the AMA said in December, gold-tier policies are particularly susceptible to 'phoenixing'.”
“As I say, unfortunately, since we lost office, Labor appear to have done very little to promote the Medical Costs Finder project, which explains its low level of uptake. Let's look at the real figures on private health cover, because Mallee constituents tell me their cover isn't providing them with everything they expected. The ABC reported that due to the cost-of-living crisis, between December 2020 and December 2023, 400,000 Australians downgraded their gold health insurance coverage. Private Healthcare Australia added that, in the first half of 2024, a further 216,000 private health policies were downgraded. PHA said at the time that almost 15 million Australians—55 per cent of the population—had some kind of private health insurance and that it was critical to keep pressure off the public system.”
“You have to wonder how hard this government has promoted the tool to prevent bill shock. The public record that Labor or the department have done much to promote the Medical Costs Finder is very scant. When the Medical Costs Finder was launched, the then chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said the website was an important step in improving the transparency of medical costs. I quote him: We know the vast majority of doctors charge reasonable and proportionate fees and disclose the costs of treatment and charges to their patients. However, some doctors do charge high fees. This website is an important step in improving understanding and transparency of medical costs. Importantly, the coalition government said we would add more detail and functionality, as recommended by the ministerial advisory committee.”