John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Macarthur in reminding us of the history and the noteworthy origins of Medicare. And thank you to the opposition for bringing forward this debate today. On this side of the House, we are always happy to talk about health care.

If ever we needed any more signs of our healthcare successes, we should just look overseas. While Australians go about their lives in relative normalcy, around the world hospitals are clogged, morgues are overloaded and families are grieving. Meanwhile, Australia has had no deaths this year and only a few hundred locally acquired cases. While our hearts go out to those in Melbourne right now, I have confidence that these quick circuit-breaker lockdowns will ensure that life will return to normal sooner than if the disease had been allowed to run rampant. While much of the praise for the handling of this pandemic can go to the states, the federal government has been supporting their efforts in providing healthcare packages to ensure Australians have had the support they've needed.

In the 2021-22 budget, the Australian government provided a further $1.7 billion to extend our COVID-19 health response package and a further $1.9 million to provide vaccine purchases and rollouts. These measures bring the total health-related COVID expenditure to over $25 billion. One of the secrets to our successes locally has been the testing numbers. Of the 19 million COVID tests taken locally, eight million were funded by this government at a cost of $650 million. We've also extended the operation of Medicare COVID-19 pathology test items until 31 December 2021, and we're working with states to respond quickly whenever COVID rears its ugly head.

On 13 March 2020 the Australian government and all state and territory governments signed the National Partnership on COVID-19 Response. As part of the partnership, the government will provide a 50 per cent contribution to the costs incurred by state and territory governments, public health and hospital systems in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. As of 7 June 2021, the government have provided $5.8 billion to states and territories under this partnership. I could talk for more than five minutes about the success of this government's response to COVID, which have kept us amongst the best performing nations as others have succumbed to devastating outbreaks and a tragic loss of life, but I'd also like to speak of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. While we face a pandemic now, one day hopefully soon we will be back to normal, and it is important to know that Australians can rely on this government to give them access to the health care and medicines they need to live and thrive.

Since 2013 the Australian government has approved more than 2,677 new or amended medicine listings on the PBS at an overall investment by the government of $13.2 billion. This represents an average of around 30 listings or amendments per month. That is about one every single day. The PBS gives life-saving medicines to Australians at hugely reduced prices. Many medicines would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and be out of the reach of many, but, through the PBS, they will pay $41.30 or $6.60 per script, and 91 per cent of PBS scripts each year, 186 million, are dispensed to concession card holders. Many patients pay no more than $6.60 per script. And 37 million scripts are free of charge because patients have reached their safety net. Equally important, the PBS ensures that the pharmaceutical companies receive fair prices for their medicines, ensuring these drugs are still made available to Australians and future life saving treatments will be available here when they have been proven to work.

We are proud to say that we have a policy to list all positive recommendations on the PBS and we are doing it quicker than ever before. Back in 2012, it took 312 days for an item recommended for listing to actually be listed. Under this government, that is now down to 166 days, ensuring Australians get medicines they need sooner. Many pharmaceutical companies are based in Bennelong and I would love to list all of their recent additions to the PBS that are based locally but, unfortunately, the companies are too innovative and the government far— (Time expired)

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