Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government making medicines cheaper for all Australians? Why is the government so determined to deliver cheaper medicines?

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

I'm delighted to take that question from our friend the member for Canberra. I'm also delighted to report, after our visit to a general practice this morning, that she has excellent blood pressure, which is often very difficult in this line of work we are in. She also promised her constituents at the last election that we would deliver cheaper medicines, and that is exactly what we are doing. In just 12 months we have delivered three different waves of cheaper medicine reform, which is already saving Australian patients tens and tens of millions of dollars, and we're working hard as well to list new cutting-edge treatments on the PBS so Australian patients get access to the world's best medicines—they're coming on right now—at affordable prices. Last month, for example, we listed a medicine called Kerendia, a new treatment for diabetic kidney disease. Now 26,000 Australians will have access to this life-changing treatment at no more than $30 a script—$7 a script if they're concessional payments; $30 a script otherwise—instead of paying a thousand dollars per year to have access to this relief.

As the member for Canberra intimates, we want to do more. We are determined to make medicines even cheaper, which is why we accepted the advice of the medicines experts who manage the PBS to allow doctors to issue 60-day prescriptions for ongoing health conditions at the price of a 30-day script. It is a policy that just makes sense. It saves patients time and money, halving the price of common medicines for six million patients. It frees up millions of desperately needed GP consults for much more serious complex health conditions, and it improves medication compliance. We know that from evidence overseas. This is why so many other countries already do this, and that is why pretty much every patients' group and every doctors' group in the country supports our policy.

An honourable member interj ecting—

I hear the interjection: what would a doctor's group know about health policy? What doesn't make sense is why the coalition seems so determined to block access to cheaper medicines for six million Australians. What doesn't make sense is why the coalition government, when they received the same advice five years ago, chose not to implement it.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause, without comment. I'll hear from the Manager of Opposition Business.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This question, and I congratulate the member for Canberra, was commendably tightly drafted. There is no reference to compare and contrast. This minister is a serial offender. He's doing it again. They're all serial offenders, every last one of them.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question at the end contained, 'Why is the government so committed to cheaper medicine?' I ask the minister, if he's doing a compare and contrast, to make sure he's relevant to that end part of the question. I thank the manager for raising the point of order.

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

It is so important because for five years patients have been shelling out hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars they shouldn't have had to pay. The former coalition government received exactly the same advice we received, but they chose to back a lobby group instead of the interests of millions of patients. That's not what we're going to do.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Page is now warned. He's had a good go.