Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Will the minister update the House on the implementation of PBS cost recovery and its impact on the budget?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am disappointed to have to report to the House that the government’s plans to introduce cost recovery for the PBS listing process has today been voted down in the other place. This is the latest act of economic vandalism by those opposite, and it will result in another $51 million in lost revenue over the forward estimates—blowing an even bigger hole in the budget surplus. I want to highlight to the House—because it is even more disappointing to have to report—that this is not just one of our policies that the opposition are opposing; this is actually one of the Liberal government’s policies that they are now voting against. In fact, when they were sitting on the other side of the House, they thought this was such a good idea that they actually banked the savings in their own budget last year. But now they are in opposition, now there is an opportunity to side with big industry, here they are opposing it.

This is a policy that the Liberal government was so fond of that it banked the savings in 2007-08 and never even introduced any legislation into the parliament. And now what do we find? We introduce the legislation into the parliament and you have voted against it. The one thing that we can say for sure is that the Liberal Party does not know what it stands for anymore. The Liberal Party does not know if it should vote for its own policies; it does not know if it should vote for our policies. It does not have any decent policy proposal. It is certainly not standing for economic responsibility. It seems to me that the only thing the Liberal Party knows is that, if there is a big industry involved, it is going to be on that side.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hunt interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Flinders is warned!

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It does not matter if it is the insurance industry against taxpayers or if it is the distillers against parents and the police. In this instance, it is lining up with an $18 billion pharmaceutical industry and blowing a $51 million hole in our budget.