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

I thank the member for Gilmore for her question. Like everyone on this side of the House, she has no higher priority than helping her community on the South Coast with the cost of living, helping her community earn more through strong wages growth and helping them keep more of what they earn through tax cuts that this government will deliver to every taxpayer on 1 July. She also promised her community cheaper medicines. We've delivered on that promise as well. We've cut the maximum yearly medicines bills for pensioners and concession card holders, meaning that around two million Australians right now are paying up to 25 per cent less for their medicines every year. Last year we delivered the biggest cut in the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS, meaning that general patients are paying around $20 million less for their medicines every month, and around 200 common medicines are now available for a 60-day supply at the cost of a single script, saving patients time and saving them even more money.

Of course, the opposition voted against those cheaper medicines, and they said the sky would fall if we proceeded with them. Instead, I'm happy to report that the number of applications to open a new pharmacy has been 50 per cent higher since we announced that measure than in the same period before the announcement, and I am delighted about that, because our government wants cheaper medicines and a strong community pharmacy sector—a pharmacy sector in strong financial health delivering even more services to Australian patients.

That's why I'm also delighted that 3,000 pharmacies so far have signed up to become providers under the National Immunisation Program since we allowed them to do that, since 1 January. And it's why I'm also delighted that we signed a heads of agreement with the Pharmacy Guild last week for a new community pharmacy agreement to start in July, delivering cheaper medicine, better patient outcomes and a strong community pharmacy sector underpinned by an investment from this government of up to an additional $3 billion, which we were able to do because of the strong budget management of this government and this Treasurer.

This was a robust negotiation; there is no doubt about that. And there's nothing wrong with that. We know that those opposite would have given in at the first hint of pressure. They would have wilted like a daffodil in a stiff summer breeze and left patients high and dry, paying more for their medicines, just as they did over that long decade. Well, that's not our approach. We were determined to get an outcome that is good for community pharmacy and also good for patients, and that is what we did last week.

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