Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How will the community pharmacy agreement that was signed today help strengthen Australia's healthcare system? Is there any opposition to the critical work of investing in public health?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Werriwa for her question and for her ongoing concern about the people of south-west Sydney having their cost-of-living pressures alleviated by government actions, and that's precisely what we have done. The government's cheaper medicines policy has already saved Australians more than $370 million on the cost of their medicines. Overwhelmingly, that has gone to benefiting low- and middle-income earners.

Today we took the next step, signing the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, not only to make sure that cheaper medicines are here to stay but also to help pharmacists deliver more health services in their local communities. All up, the deal is worth $26.5 billion over five years. It includes a range of measures, including the freezing of PBS co-payments—delivering that cost-of-living relief—for one year for every single person with a Medicare card but for five years for pensioners and concession cardholders. That means cheaper medicines will stay cheaper, not rise with inflation.

Community pharmacists, of course, are such trusted and valued members of our community. Australians rely on them for advice and for support, and today I spoke to one of my local pharmacists, Adele Tahan, who is the vice-president of the Pharmacy Guild. She certainly welcomed the delivery of this support. We're making sure that community pharmacies can continue to play that vital role, including through dosing advice and assistance for people who take multiple medications to ensure that they're taking the right dose at the right time and avoiding mistakes and waste.

We're increasing the regional pharmacy maintenance allowance. We're building on actions that this government took in our first two years. 60-day prescriptions—remember them? Those opposite opposed them day after day, week after week, month after month. They said it would lead to the shutting down of pharmacies. Well, today pharmacists have signed up to 60-day prescriptions. We've established 58 Medicare urgent care clinics, with another 29 on the way, and we've tripled the bulk-billing incentive. Labor built Medicare, and we will always protect it and we will always strengthen it.

This year marks 10 years since the infamous 2014 budget, a budget that tried to establish a GP tax, that cut $50 billion from hospital funding and that wanted to increase the cost of pharmaceuticals. The contrast is clear. This side of the House is standing up for patients and for farmers. (Time expired)