Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the terrific member for Reid, who worked so hard to win her electorate at the last election, including by promising her constituents to strengthen Medicare and to deliver cheaper medicines.

I am pleased to report to the member for Reid that in just the first two months of this year her constituents have saved $272,000 on the price of medicines because we delivered the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS. Even before that, we slashed the maximum amount that pensioners pay for medicines across the year by 25 per cent. That means they pay no more than $5 a week over the course of the year for all of their medicine needs, no matter how many scripts they get filled. In September we cut the price of 2,000 brands of medicine, delivering $130 million back into the pockets of hardworking Australians. And this Saturday we will cut the price of 600 more brands of medicine, putting millions of dollars more back into the pockets of Australians.

We're continuing to list life-changing and life-saving medicines on the PBS. This Saturday, OPDIVO, the well-known medicine, will be expanded to certain oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal cancers, benefiting 400 Australian patients who would otherwise be paying $85,000 for a course of that life-saving treatment. It will now be just $30.

The contrast between our approach to cheaper medicines and the approach pursued by the Leader of the Opposition when he was health minister could not be clearer. When he was Minister for Health, the Leader of the Opposition tried to make medicines more expensive—not cheaper but dearer. In his first budget as health minister, the Leader of the Opposition tried to jack up the price of medicines for every single Australian, including by $5 for every single general script—so down by $12.50 under us, up by $5 under that fellow. While we've slashed the PBS safety nets by 25 per cent, he tried to jack up safety net thresholds for general and concessional patients by as much as 10 per cent.

The Leader of the Opposition's 'dearer medicines policy' would have ripped $1.3 billion out of the pockets of Australian patients, had he had his way, and, Mr Speaker, he was proud of it. Introducing the legislation to implement his dearer medicines policy, the Leader of the Opposition said it was another example of the Abbott government's 'work to protect the best interests of Australians'.

Now he says, 'Hear, hear!' No wonder Australia's doctors overwhelmingly voted this man the worst health minister in the history of Medicare. (Time expired)

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