Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

that the PBAC recommends. In fact, she may not have caught up on this: on 1 August, that included new medicine for epilepsy. When someone approaches the despatch box and they have not done even the most basic homework, that's an embarrassing fail. If I were the member for Ballarat, I'd be a little bit embarrassed on this day. When it comes to epilepsy, it is done and dusted, and patients are to benefit—already on the PBS. This is one of those moments where perhaps the Leader of the Opposition might look around and say, 'That was an error'. Let me also quote something. This is the very thing to which the Prime Minister referred: Labor's 2011 portfolio budget statements. I quote:

… given the current fiscal environment, the listing of some medicines would be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit.

Those are not our words and not a paraphrase. That was the exact budget position.

What were those medicines? They were severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medicines, and blood clot medicines to treat deep vein thrombosis. They are medicines for the treatment of endometriosis, the treatment of in vitro fertilisation and the treatment of schizophrenia. Of the hundreds of questions an opposition could ask, I cannot think of a less wise, more hypocritical or more foolish question that someone could ask when we have listed the very thing that they are talking about, with more to come—trust me on that—and without them being aware that on 1 August new medicines were listed for precisely the issue of epilepsy. What a poor moment.

Let me go further than that, because only yesterday I talked about the new head and neck cancer medicine, Opdivo, at $50,000, which was listed on 1 August, along with epilepsy; the new lymphoma cancer medicine at $134,000 for Imbruvica; and the 1,500 patients who benefited from Neulasta. These are all things which are happening on our watch. Labor are hurting because they know they are 'medifrauds' and we are 'medifriends'. They know that they were caught out delaying listings. When it comes to the PBS, we have a record of— (Time expired)

See this speech in context