TOM CONNELL, HOST: Joining me live now, Assistant Minister for Women, Health and Aged Care, Rebecca White. Thank you very much for your time. So, the government announcing its policy on reducing the increased rebate for over 65’s. The key part was this Treasury modelling that it would only mean 44,000 people stop private health insurance. The states say it'll be more. If it is a lot more than that, do you need to reconsider it, given it's a key part of justifying the policy?
REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: It's not only a key part of justifying the policy, I think it speaks to the reasons we're doing this in the first place. And the Minister spoke about that in the package, Tom, it's about how we free up money to invest in areas where there is increasing demand and where states are asking us to make investment, specifically in more aged care beds. This is going to raise $3 billion that will be used to fund specifically aged care beds and more packages of care. And this is an area we know there is high demand. And I point to the mention the minister made of, where are the states expecting us to find this money.
It's about making the system fairer. I've spoken to lots of older members in my community who've raised this with me. They have been worried by the fact they might lose the whole rebate - that is not true. It's just making it fair for all people of all incomes to receive the same rebate.
CONNELL: So, that $3 billion, though, that's not a true $3 billion if, say, the real number of people dropping private health insurance becomes 100,000, maybe more, and then the cost goes back through the health system which costs the states and the Federal Government. So, doesn't that need to be factored in?
WHITE: Well, all of these things have to be considered in the environment of the broader health system. No government before this one has made a bigger investment in health care when you look at how we strengthen access to Medicare, more urgent care clinics, cheaper medicines, more bulk billing GPs. And I've spoken to lots of people who've benefited from this who will be able to stay well for longer, not relying on their private health insurance, because they're actually getting greater benefit through the primary health care system.
So, we’ve made significant investment as a government in providing greater access to healthcare right across the country for people of all ages. And this has to be considered in the context of this conversation, not just seen in a singular issue around private health insurance.
CONNELL: [Talks over] Okay. We've got a huge increase in people waiting to get into aged care and they're now stuck in a hospital bed. So, it's a record number, a big increase. Why is this happening on Labor's watch, four years into a Labor Government?
WHITE: Because we have an ageing population, Tom. It's just a matter of statistics. If you look at the number of people turning 80 this year compared to 10 years ago, it is a staggering increase. We have a lot more older Australians, and that is putting a lot more pressure on our healthcare and aged care system. Which is why we're investing $47 billion delivering aged care services just this year alone.
We know this is an area that requires significant investment and significant collaboration with our state and territory partners to deliver access to healthcare because we have an ageing population. And that's the reason for the reforms that we're rolling out.
CONNELL: [Talks over] Okay. But we knew we had an ageing population, that's been known for a long time. Does this demonstrate that the government was either-
WHITE: Despite that fact, and yes, that’s absolutely true, [indistinct] but the fact that the Coalition didn't invest, in fact, cut from aged care for the 10 years that they were in government. We have a lot of catch-up to do here.
CONNELL: [Talks over] Yeah. Well, Labor’s been in- you've been in power for four years and it's going up.
WHITE: You're quite right. We knew this was coming, but it has taken the Labor Government to act on it.
CONNELL: You can't, surely, be blaming the Coalition for what's happening now?
WHITE: Because the population is growing. We've got a lot of catch-up to do, Tom.
You can't just build aged care facilities overnight. This takes time, it takes planning, and we’re working to roll out quite a significant program across the country to stand up more aged care beds. But we're also increasing the workforce.
CONNELL: [Interrupts] Is it increased more than you thought?
WHITE: We're increasing the workforce which has required significant training, and we've seen increase in wages which has helped with retention. Which has been a really big challenge because we've had quite a lot of turnover in staff in the aged care services particularly.
The modelling that Treasury has done, the modelling that the previous government would have received as well, has shown us for a long period of time that we knew that these numbers of older Australians were going to require additional healthcare, additional aged care. But it’s only this government that’s acted and put the money in to make sure that we can respond to that. I mean, I don't want to harp back to the royal commission with the title Neglect, but it laid bare the problems that we have within the system, and it's our government that's responding to that.
CONNELL: Good. Yeah, things don't happen overnight. We are a while in. Anyway, we'll see where those figures go. We were talking about the New South Wales roundtable today on domestic violence. It's a scourge that continues and it's now boys, not men, most likely to commit it, according to recent university studies. Chanel Contos has said that crucial in this is algorithms, social media algorithms that are driving boys towards this. She says have an opt-in feature. So, anyone with a social media account has to opt in to an algorithm experience versus just seeing what your followers put out there. Is this something the government will implement?
WHITE: We're pushing forward with our Digital Duty of Care legislation later this year, which will give us the ability to look at algorithms as a part of that. So essentially, what this is doing is putting the responsibility and the onus back on those platforms to make sure these are safe environments for all of us to interact on. They're very different to how they used to be when they first came about, where you were following your friends and seeing things that are happening in your local community. The algorithm now pushes a lot more information to people and we know that within half an hour of being online young boys and young men are being exposed to misogynistic material.
So, there is a really key role for us to play here to see how we can work with these technology companies and put the responsibility back on them to make sure these are safe places.
CONNELL: [Talks over] Okay. But we know it's doable because this is how the technology used to work. So given that, will you set it at the high bar of opt-in? Is that what you'll make tech companies do?
WHITE: Well, there are consultations underway. As you would know through the legislation we're looking to bring to Parliament later this year through the Digital Duty of Care, we're trying to understand if it can be done through that mechanism. But we also don't want to create a system where it becomes sort of a featureless environment. Because they are doing this in some other jurisdictions where people have opted in just to follow their friends. And the way that the platform then presents that information is not really user-friendly. So, we have to also make sure-
CONNELL: [Interrupts] That's a cop-out from platforms though, isn't it? They deliberately designed that one badly, so people don't want it. So, what are you saying there that you have to make sure tech companies do the right thing?
WHITE: Yes, absolutely. That's absolutely right. Because they can comply with the letter of the law, but the way that they do it means that people choose to go around it. So, we have to make sure that the experience is still a good one for those people who are using these platforms, but they're also safe. They have to be safe.
CONNELL: Rebecca White, got to leave it there. Thank you.
WHITE: Thank you.