Member for Mallee - Transcript - Interview ABC Radio Regional South Australia with Narelle Graham - 13 May 2026

DR ANNE WEBSTER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL HEALTH
SHADOW MINISTER FOR REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MALLEE

TRANSCRIPT

TOPICS: Federal Budget health spending, private health insurance rebate cut,  aged care beds and services, private hospital viability  

Graham  

Everyone's got an opinion about the budget. I am sure. Hope that we can help you form your own by focusing on what's been announced, and I thought you'd be particularly interested in health care, also roads, which we touched on earlier and coming up after five housing in the health space, the government announced an extra $25 billion for hospitals, $6.5 billion for cheaper medicines. So that's for increased listings on the PBS for cystic fibrosis, chronic kidney disease, various cancers, also free access to the RSV vaccine for older Australians through the national immunisation programme, and also increases to the childhood vaccination rates hoped to be gained through an enhanced immunisation campaign. So, SMS reminders, growing the National Immunisation Program. $589 million for medical research in Australia. 4 billion over five years for Thriving Kids. $3.7 billion for more beds, more packages and better care for older Australians, and of course, the changes to the NDIS, which Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler spoke about on ABC Radio earlier today,

Butler  

Tomorrow, I'll be introducing legislation which will include the first tranche of those changes to get the NDIS back on track. I want to be clear, the NDIS will continue to grow every year for the 10 years that we've projected. It will continue to be the biggest social program we have in this country, outside of the age pension. But we've got to slow the growth. We've got to make sure the money is getting to where it's needed, rather than going to fraudsters and shonks and the legislation I introduced tomorrow and hope to pass by the 30th of June, will make the first changes to deliver that.

Graham  

Dr Anne Webster is the Shadow Minister for Regional Health and Communications, and also is the Nationals member for the Mallee in Victoria. Dr Anne Webster, good afternoon.

Webster  

Good afternoon. Narelle

Graham  

You've had such a busy day. I really appreciate being able to capitalise on some of your time. I know you want to tell me what's bad about the budget and health. First up, what is good here in health from where you're sitting?

Webster  

Look, I think the PBS announcements are good. I think, obviously the hospital funding - the $25 billion for hospitals, which goes to our state and territory governments to determine where that funding will go. Might be a bit of a hiccup there, in my view. And I think, you know, the statement about increasing the number of aged care beds is good, but I think there are issues with that, in terms of the $3 billion plus that has been committed by the Minister, which is coming out of the private health insurance rebate that's been cut for over 65 year olds. Yeah, that - that's a problem.

Graham  

Okay, yeah, so we'll talk about what's bad in a minute, but so ... Minister Butler was asked about changes to the private health rebate, which you've brought up there, Anne, and to explain for people, from the 1st of April 2027 age will be removed as a determinant for the private health insurance rebate. So that means, I think there's about 3 million Australians aged over 65 will have to pay hundreds of dollars more for their private health insurance a year. So, I think it works out to be about $240 a year or more and before this budget, if you were aged between 65 and 69 you could claim 28 per cent of your private insurance premiums. And for anyone over 70, it was 32% - so here's Minister Butler again:

Butler  

We think that the very small number of people who might choose to suspend their private health insurance as a result of this change, less than half a percent is about a quarter of the growth of private health insurance is currently seeing every single year, so it won't have an impact on overall membership, in that sense, but it's also the right thing to do. I don't think we can sustain a position where two households next to each other are getting different subsidies for their private health insurance when they earn the same income but happen to be at a different age, so paying the right the same subsidy to all Australians based on their income rather than their age, is, I think, the right thing to do. And every dollar that we save on that is going into new aged care investment, more aged care beds, more packages and better care for people.

Graham  

Dr Anne Webster, Shadow Minister for Regional Health, why do you think it's a mistake?

Webster  

Look, my view is, and our view as a Coalition is, that people who have paid taxes all their lives, who have paid private health insurance all their lives, and let's remember that if you come in late to private health insurance, you have to pay additional percentage of your fee in order to join the health insurance trail, if you like. So those who are 65, many people have hit pension age. Many people have paid all those taxes, paid for the health insurance fund up to there. John Howard inserted this in to try and keep people in private health because it takes the pressure off public health systems - and our public health system, I don't need to tell you or your listeners that it's struggling, and if you can have more people stay in private health insurance, because the cost for a couple can be actually up to $1,000 a year, and for those who are on their pension, that can be a problem, particularly in a cost of living crisis. So, my view is that it's not a good move, and the $3 billion that Minister Rae told us today was for 5,000 new beds. I'd like to know where they are, where they're going to be placed, because we have, at the moment, 200,000 people waiting for assessments or approvals or services, and out in the bush, it is so much harder to get all of that happening, and we've got 5,000 who have died waiting for aged care support. And I think that's a tragedy.

Narelle Graham  

Doesn't it .. I'm just thinking this health insurance issue here, in the rebate from ... doesn't it go to the heart of the budget's intention, which we keep hearing from the Labor federal government that that's about addressing intergenerational equity?

Webster  

Yeah, well, I was going to say that after you played Minister Butler ... was playing from that playbook, intergenerational equity and fairness and all of those things. As I said, people who are 65 and plus have been paying their taxes, they've been paying their private health insurance for decades, and giving them the break that Howard gave them back in - I don't even know when it was, in the 90s - I don't think is unreasonable people who are 25 and just coming into private health insurance, particularly as a single, it is not a bad thing, and they too would get to 65 if you kept the system and be able to receive that bit of easing for the payment of private health insurance. Because my problem is, I worry that private hospitals will end up closing if they have an exit, a good size exit of people who have been paying those insurance premiums, I would worry that we're going to lose private hospitals, and I hear from them all the time they are struggling.

Narelle Graham  

Yeah, 0467922783, is the text line. What could be better in the health space, in this budget Anne?

Webster  

Look, I think Support at Home packages just have to roll out the door. I'll give you an example of a gentleman who's in my electorate in Mallee. He's 80. He's also deaf, and so My Aged Care did an assessment with him on the phone. That's what regional Australians are getting. Too bad if you're deaf, you get an assessment for your functionality on the phone. And I don't think it takes terribly much to put that together and go, well, you know what? That's not a great idea. That's a terrible idea. And then they are waiting to actually receive approvals. We know today that it's over 12 months for an assessment to take place, and then it could be several more months before approvals. And then, if you can get a provider, what I - the feedback I am getting, is that in the regions, providers are telling clients who have been assessed, have been approved, have got a package, they can't get any services because the providers books are closed. This is grossly unfair. Now if you're in metropolitan Adelaide or Melbourne or Sydney or wherever, then you can no doubt find another provider to be able to provide those services, but out in the regions, we are seriously restricted, and hence, I think, why we have 5,000 people have literally died waiting for aged care support, and 200,000 are waiting for the assessment approval and services to take place. I think that's a problem. I think most of your listeners who are older will be worrying: Are they going to be able to get the aged care? I'm happy to hear from anyone who is struggling to get an assessment, struggling to get their services out in the regions, because it really matters, and the government needs to be held to account to make sure that regional people are not left behind.

Narelle Graham  

Dr Anne Webster, thank you,

Webster  

Absolute pleasure. Thanks. Narelle.