Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Medicare freeze to which the Leader of the Opposition refers is his Medicare freeze. It is Labor's Medicare freeze. Labor imposed the Medicare freeze, and they know it. We are lifting it. We are lifting it progressively, as we said in the budget. We are managing the healthcare programs of the government with a responsibility, a compassion and a commitment that sees more funding, more taxpayers' dollars being spent on Medicare, on the PBS and on hospitals every single year.

And one of the things we are spending more on and doing more on is listing more life-saving drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. During the course of this government, we have listed 1,400 new drugs. In the last three years of the Labor government, they listed 330. That was the difference. They rationed the PBS. They did not list life-saving drugs, when they could have and they should have; we do—big difference. This makes a huge difference to the lives of thousands of Australians. Let me tell the House about one of them.

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