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

I'd first of all like to thank my friend the member for Robertson for moving this motion. It is important that we acknowledge the significant achievement that our government has made to deliver cheaper medicines to millions of Australians. The reason that I am in this place is to try to make sure I fulfil my promise to my electorate to make medical care cheaper and more equitable not only across my electorate but across the country. I am very proud to be part of a Labor government that is doing this self-evidently and appropriately in spite of the battles that they are facing against vested interests. I would also like to acknowledge the member for Kooyong, who, indeed, like me has long advocated for extended prescribing times. This will certainly make a huge difference to the way medicines are delivered to some of the most vulnerable Australians.

Our cheaper medicines policy came into effect on 1 January this year and reduced the general co-payment for medicines on the PBS from $42.50 down to $30. Besides being a price drop for patients, this is the first time in the 75-year history of the PBS that the general co-payment has been dropped. It's important also, and one of the main reasons for me speaking on this motion, that this will make health care much more equitable for some people, particularly families, who are very vulnerable in this cost-of-living crisis.

I saw firsthand as a paediatrician the disastrous effects of the coalition's ignorant policy on health care in Australia, with a lack of access to GP visits, more expensive medicines, more difficulty for patients to access specialist care and a breakdown in our outpatient system and our public hospitals. This government, the Albanese Labor government, is attempting to change the way that health care is delivered in Australia to a more equitable system. We've had 10 years of neglect and we're not going to fix it all in one budget, but, certainly, the last budget was a huge effort to redress the balance of health care in Australia.

At the moment, Australians who are wealthy can access the best health care in the world, but people who are vulnerable, because of either a lack of income or living in rural and regional areas, are really struggling to access health care that sometimes falls to Third-World levels. We see that in our Indigenous populations with conditions, like rheumatic fever, that have been eradicated in virtually every other developed country in the world still being present in some of our Indigenous populations. We see life expectancies for people who live in rural and regional areas persistently being many years below those of people who live in the inner cities and have access to some of the best health care.

In my electorate, from Rosemeadow to Ruse, from Glen Alpine to Harrington Park, from some of the poorest areas to some of the wealthiest areas, these changes that we have made, not just our prescribing rules but also the changes that came into effect on 1 January, will make a huge difference to the equity of access to health care. I applaud that and I congratulate the health minister, Mark Butler, for doing that. This has resulted in savings already of half a million dollars in Macarthur—amazing—in just a few days.

Going forward, this policy will save Australians more than $1.6 billion over the next four years. If you couple that with the changes to Medicare, the increase in the bulk-billing rebates with the general rebate for a standard GP consultation going up by over 30 per cent, it will make equity of access a really important feature of this first term of the Albanese government. I applaud it. Patients can now halve the number of times they visit a GP for regular medications. They don't have the inconvenience of having to turn up at a pharmacy every 30 days for routine medications that they may well have been stable on for more than 20 years. It's very important for health care in our communities that in the 21st century we make our systems more efficient.

I know there are concerns from pharmacies and by pharmacists. I've met with many of them and I understand their concerns, but I would encourage them to come back to the table. There are ways that we can help our pharmacies, particularly in isolated rural and regional areas, like some of the small towns around my electorate. We can look at ways to try and improve their scope of practice. We can look at ways of trying to improve their general practices. But they must come back to the table. This government has done amazingly well, and I'm proud to be part of it.

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