Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really am very loath to get involved in negativity and argument about this motion. As you know, Madam Deputy Speaker Chesters, I've worked in the healthcare system for over 40 years. I've had a great relationship with all of my local pharmacists and I've appreciated their hard work, in particular the work that they did to stay open and provide services for their patients during the pandemic. I know how hard many of them work.

This policy that the member for Fisher has described is actually sensible healthcare policy that will deliver better and more efficient healthcare outcomes for the whole of Australia. There is no doubt that this is long overdue. This has been talked about in healthcare circles for 20 or 30 years. The idea that someone who is stable on a long-term medication has to go back to their pharmacy every 30 days to get repeat prescriptions is crazy. The idea that people have to go back to their GPs every few months to get repeat prescriptions is also crazy. That's why the government is extending the GP prescription time to 12 months and is allowing people to pick up 60 days—two months supply—of their regular, long-term medications without having to go back every 30 days to the pharmacies. It's sensible, it's efficient and it saves money. It is better healthcare policy. This is a bit like taxis versus Uber. Uber has changed the system. It's more efficient. People like it and people want it.

I have the biggest electorate in Australia by population. I've had not one patient complain to me about the 60-day prescribing. There have been lots of complaints from pharmacists. They were consulted. They're the ones that walked away from the table. The Pharmacy Guild walked away from discussions. They drew a line in the sand and then walked away. I'm encouraging them to come back to the table to talk about how we can help their pharmacies, which, by the way, have been earning record incomes in the last five years. I'm saying, 'Come back to the table, and let's talk about this.' But this is sensible healthcare policy. It is better for patients. It's better for our system. It gives GPs more time to deal with patients, and we know that, in the last 10 years, there has been an exodus of general practitioners. We just haven't been able to get them. The previous government sat on their hands and did nothing, and, when we introduce sensible healthcare policy, all we get from the opposition is negativity and argument. As I say, I have the greatest respect for our local pharmacists, but this is the 21st century. We must make our systems more efficient. We must make them work better for patients, and this is a start. As the minister has noted, we understand very well that the Pharmacy Guild has to represent their members and we understand what they're talking about, but they are the ones that walked away from the table. They must come back, and we must talk about how we can make our system more efficient.

The Pharmacy Guild uses ridiculous arguments like, 'More children are going to die of overdose because of this.' There's absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever, yet they keep on saying silly things like that. They're talking about compliance issues. Compliance will actually be better with 60-day prescribing, and it is crazy that they would say otherwise. We know there is a problem with young males in particular who are on regular medication going back and getting repeat scripts and getting their medication from the pharmacy. This will make compliance better. The 300 medications that will be covered under this policy will be introduced slowly. There will be no increase in medicine shortages over those we have now. We've had medicine shortages because of the policies of the previous government over the last 10 years. We've learned how to deal with that, as have pharmacies. It's important to note that nearly a million Australians every year are forced to go without their prescriptions because of cost, and this will reduce cost to patients and make it more efficient. More people will be able to afford their medications because of this 60-day prescribing. This policy is important. It brings benefits to over six million Australians who won't have to go back every 30 days the pharmacy to get medications they may well have been stable on for over 20 years.

This is good policy. There will not be increased medication shortages. I doubt very much that businesses will go broke and close. This is not true; this is a fallacy. This government is doing what is best for healthcare policy, and the minister is to be congratulated.

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