Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. After the election, the Prime Minister said that he had learnt a clear lesson about his attacks on Medicare, but last night, in a train wreck of an interview with Laura Jayes about the government's cuts to Medicare, the Minister for Health and Aged Care said: 'The policy settings are correct. The policy settings are where they need to be'. Who is correct, the Prime Minister or the minister? Or has the government learnt nothing from the election about its attacks on Medicare?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the opposition leader for the opportunity to advise the House exactly how the minister and the government are delivering health care for all Australians—record levels of health funding, record levels of bulk-billing, making medicines more accessible and cheaper for all Australians. In our first three years nearly 1,000 new medicines were approved for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, worth $4.4 billion. Compare that with 331 new medicines in Labor's last three years. That is three times as many new medicines.

Not everyone in the House may be aware, but today is Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Breast cancer rates are too high. Thousands are living with metastatic breast cancer and, tragically, around 3,000 die every year of this disease. I am pleased that, due to our government's strong economic management, we have been able to add new drugs to the PBS. We funded $191 million over four years to list two new drugs used to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer—Perjeta and Kadcyla—in addition to allowing more flexibility with the use of Herceptin. Without government subsidy these medicines would cost consumers over $82,700 a year to access.

I will tell the House a real-life story, about Karen from Yass in New South Wales. She is a single parent with three children at home, including a daughter with an intellectual disability. She was first diagnosed with early breast cancer in 2010. It spread in 2012. She started on Kadcyla soon after it become available on the PBS. These are her words: 'To say that Kadcyla turned my life around is a major understatement. Because it is a targeted treatment, it is not as debilitating as more traditional chemo treatment. For the first time in years, I was well enough to do more about the house, picked up some causal work again and was able to catch up on my daughter's medical stuff that I'd struggled to be on top of. I could actually go out with the family and have some quality of life again. It's still a chemical therapy, and it still has side effects, but the fact that it is available to me, just an average mum, wanting to hang in there for her kids, is truly a complete blessing.'

Let me say that Karen is by no means an average mum, and I am sure that all members wish her the very best of health in the future and acknowledge that making that drug available, which we have been able to do, is changing and sustaining her life.