Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (13:45): Numbers matter. When the government brings down a budget, the numbers matter even more—$50 billion in more taxes on the Australian people. The disgrace from the budget last night is who the government has decided to tax more: our elderly. Surprisingly, the government has decided to go after our elderly, and that is while the aged-care system is failing them dreadfully. At the moment, as I said, numbers matter. There are 200,000 elderly Australians waiting to get assessed or to receive home-care support, Support at Home. Commonwealth home-care support—I really don't care what the name is. The fact is our elderly are being ignored, and their dignity is at stake under this government.

Last time we checked, 5,000 people had died waiting to get onto aged-care support. This is an absolute shame on this government. Rather than talking about those things and making sure that more funding is available—guess what? They're coming after the over-65-year-olds to take their private health insurance so they theoretically can pay for the aged-care debacle.

‍