David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to be talking on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Everyone in this room recognises that it is a wonderful system that was brought in by none other than Ben Chifley, as the member for Macarthur has pointed out. No-one disputes that; it is a great system. And, since 2013, it has gone ahead in leaps and bounds. I'll just outline some of the things that have been achieved, and then I'll correct the record on some of the distortions of fact that are appearing on the other side.

First of all, we have listed 2,100—in fact, there are now 2,102—items on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since we were given the responsibility of running government in 2013. That's an exceptional golden period of new drugs. The latest ones that were listed on the weekend were for cystic fibrosis, the dual listing of Symdeko and Orkambi. I don't know of any other jurisdiction that subsidises the cost of these wonderful, life-changing drugs for people who are born with cystic fibrosis. We've also lowered the age at which it becomes available, down to the age of two. Previously, you could only access one of these drugs once you were over the age of five.

For lung cancer—one of the commonest and probably the most fatal of the solid organ cancers—we've got Keytruda, Tecentriq and Avastin. Now for those last two, it's $189,000 for a course. For Keytruda, it's $90,000 for a course. We've added treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, Sprycel; there are new drugs for ovarian cancer, for heart disease, for asthma, and the list goes on and on and on.

Now, clause (2) of this motion refers to the government not listing 20 drugs. I have checked with the minister's office, and he has in turn checked with the department. The department is not a political animal; it's a deliverer of the great health system that we have. There are no—I'll just get the exact words, so I'm not misquoting. The department says, 'The PBS schedule will shortly be updated to reflect a number of additional medicines that will be listed on the PBS on 1 November.' What they are referring to is the PBAC. It makes it's recommendations; it does that three times a year. There is a delay between when it recommends it and—there's correspondence sent to the makers of these drugs. There was recently a nine-month delay for one drug before the overseas company agreed to the listing conditions; it took nine days from that letter being received to these last couple of drugs being listed. So it's a pretty quick system.

It's in the budget papers and it's on the public record, but there can be delays. In 2011 the then Labor health minister, Nicola Roxon—I give her marks for being honest—said:

Ultimately I think the important point is that we can't in every instance guarantee that a drug will be listed immediately because there are financial consequences for doing that …

As a result, for some of the drugs that had been recommended, there was a willing seller, but there just wasn't money in the budget. That was for severe asthma; COPD, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; endometriosis; IVF treatment; and some schizophrenia drugs.

We have a very proud record of delivering for the people of Australia. You do have to manage your budget, because we have high-cost medication listings across the board. They do cost a lot of money, but those cystic fibrosis drugs will actually add, on average, 20 extra years of life to people who are born now and who start these wonderful drugs, which improve their lung function, at an early age. All the thick mucus damages their lungs and their pancreas and affects their bowel. All that will be limited. They will be better nourished. Their lungs will work. They will have a much better outcome.

We should be celebrating the wonderful system that we have in this country. We have managed our budgetary pressures well. We are listing. At the moment, all the ones that have been recommended and the companies we've responded to have been listed, which is a pretty amazing outcome. What a turnaround since 2013.

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