Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fisher is home to 38,000 locals over the age of 65, and I share their frustration with this government—not that I'm over 65!—which has shown nothing but utter contempt for older Australians and their families. If you needed proof, more than 900 questions from the Senate about the Health and Aged Care portfolio have been left unanswered since October, and that is just the start.

Let's have a look at franking credits. Before the last election this Prime Minister promised no changes to super and no changes to franking credits, yet one of the first decisions of his government was to break that promise. Their decision stops shareholders from benefiting from the off-market buybacks of companies that they've invested in. Treasury confirmed that the measure was essentially a tax on incomes and retirement savings. These changes don't just impact the three million Australians who receive franking credits. As the 2023 Tax Expenditures and Insights Statements show, the majority of the franking credits inevitably flow to charities, super funds and Australian companies. This is not just a broken promise to senior Australians; it's a broken promise to charities and companies into the future.

'What about aged care?' I hear you ask. The Prime Minister promised to put the care back into aged care. Instead, he's broken his headline election promise to older Australians. Labor promised a registered nurse at every aged-care home 24/7 by July 2023. They had no plan or modelling to train the nearly 7,000 registered nurses required to keep that promise. The royal commission, the sector and common sense indicated that this would be unfeasible and would put a significant strain on aged-care service providers. And yet they've ploughed ahead, enforcing workforce standards which are simply not workable. As a result, facilities are falling over, and older Australians are forced back onto waiting lists.

Now, it sounds good—greater care for older people. No-one could argue with that. It sounds good. It sounds good until we see a situation where nursing homes are having to close because they can't comply with the requirements that this government has placed on so many small operators. That has resulted in many people losing those opportunities of being cared for. It's tantamount to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Bulk-billing is in crisis, and older Australians are paying the price for Labor's primary-care crisis. Right now the GP bulk-billing rate is 77.7 per cent. This compares to 84 per cent under Peter Dutton as health minister and 88.5 per cent when the coalition left office just two years ago. In the last 12 months alone, Australians have lost access to more than 400 dedicated bulk-billing GP clinics. Anybody listening to this speech tonight probably needs another life, but anybody listening to this speech would know how impossibly difficult it is to see a GP. You can ring up your local GP and try to get a consultation and be left for weeks before you can get in. They are under the pump. Labor played politics with private health insurance premium rates, refusing to release the 0.6 increase until after the Dunkley by-election. No wonder they hid it! Fourteen million Australians who have taken out private health cover are now forced to pay more for their health and wellbeing.

But, wait! There's more! They botched the shingles vaccine, they've slashed mental healthcare funding against experts' advice and public demand, they've driven up the cost of visiting a GP by up to $11. Remember all the arguments about copayments? Where are we now? They've stripped fast-acting insulin from the PBS, impacting up to 14,500 diabetics on the Sunshine Coast, and the list goes on and on. I could go on and on, but I won't.