David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The signing of the eighth community pharmacy agreement is a win for patients, who will benefit from cheaper medicines, and the sector, which will provide more pharmacy services. Community pharmacies in my electorate did the heavy lifting during the pandemic and worked hard to provide health care to the residents of Bean.

Yesterday, along with the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the assistant minister for mental health, I visited the award-winning Capital Chemist Southlands to discuss what the eighth CPA means for them. This new agreement will support them to ensure that residents of Bean continue to get cheaper medicines while, at the same time, support our community pharmacies to do the critical work they do. This new agreement will freeze medicine co-payments for patients for up to five years and increase the number of free medicine Webster-paks that pharmacies can deliver by 50 per cent, paid for by the Commonwealth. This new agreement will give community pharmacies more financial certainty and will support a sustainable pharmacy network across Australia. The Albanese government was determined to deliver an agreement that was good for patients and good for community pharmacy, and this week that is what we delivered.

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