Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health: The Minister has announced that the budget includes a landmark guarantee for the funding of new medicines. But, yesterday in estimates, his officials admitted that this funding is not in the budget but that new PBS cuts of $250 million a year are in the budget. Why did the Minister announce funding but instead deliver cuts?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I could not be more pleased than to have a question on the PBS from that side of the chamber. Let me be clear about what is in this budget and what is not in this budget. What is in this budget is $41 billion for the listing of new medicines such as Lynparza, for ovarian cancer. Three hundred women will benefit from a medicine which would otherwise cost $140,000. Listed are Avastin and Tecentriq to deal with liver cancer for 500 Australians. These are medicines that would otherwise cost $170,000 a year. There is a landmark new agreement, which will produce an expected $2.8 billion of investment directly in new medicines. The difference is, and this is what's very important, that those medicines will no longer have to be offset from within the portfolio. Why is that very important? Because we saw a moment in history when that requirement led to a previous government stopping the listing of new medicines. That was the very thing that Medicines Australia sought and welcomed on budget night.

I had the privilege of speaking today with the CEO of Medicines Australia, Liz de Somer, who reaffirmed her delight at the outcome. This is what they had sought for over a decade. Why? Because in 2011 the then government stopped listing new medicines. Why did they stop listing new medicines? It was due to fiscal circumstances: 'The listing of new medicines will be deferred until fiscal circumstances allow.' These medicines included medicines for schizophrenia, for skin conditions, for endometriosis and for IVF, amongst other things. They stopped listing new medicines for schizophrenia, endometriosis and IVF in one of the moments of great health shame in this country, in this parliament. They were responsible; we fixed it. Not only have we fixed it in this budget, we've fixed it forever. That leads to Lynparza for ovarian cancer, to Avastin and Tecentriq for liver cancer and to the new medicines we announced on the weekend for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, to provide those outcomes— (Time expired)