Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

TEHAN () (): The National Health Amendment (Supporting Patient Access to Cheaper Medicines and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is the enabling legislation for certain health measures contained in the 2024-25 budget, including the $3 billion in measures relating to the new eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement. The eighth CPA has been agreed between the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. This followed intense pressure from the coalition at the end of last year on behalf of all Australians who rely on their local community pharmacist. The agreement was finally released in June 2024, following sustained pressure from the coalition after the government botched implementation of the 60-day dispensing policy. They were warned at the time by the coalition that they had botched it and had botched it immensely. There was, rightly, outrage amongst regional and rural pharmacists in particular, and the government wouldn't listen but, anyway, in the end, were forced to act. We understood that government's lack of consultation and rushed policymaking was placing Australia's healthcare access at risk. We understood that; the government didn't.

Many community pharmacies are small businesses. Expecting small businesses to shoulder the costs of a government policy alone was completely unreasonable. Our role in pressuring the government was in direct response to the risks that this posed to our critical community pharmacy sector. We called on the government to get back to the table with the community pharmacy sector and negotiate an eighth CPA to resolve legitimate concerns on their approach to 60-day dispensing. Fighting alongside community pharmacies, the coalition supported the sector to negotiate this new agreement with the government. Through the advocacy of the coalition and community pharmacists across the country, we supported Australians having access to more affordable most medicines without risking their local pharmacy closing.

In reaching the new agreement, the government have recognised their initial approach to 60-day dispensing would have caused damage to all Australians who rely on their local community pharmacist. The eighth CPA will commence on 1 July 2024 and will provide increased support for pharmacies, with a funding boost of $3 billion and a total $26.5 billion in funding over five years. In the 2024-25 budget, the government provided further details on the measures agreed to as part of this agreement, including a one-year freeze in indexation of the PBS general patient co-payment, a five-year freeze in indexation of PBS concessional and general patient reduced and concessional beneficiary patient co-payments, and a gradual phasing-out of the $1 discount that can be offered to patients in certain circumstances to further discount the cost of PBS medicines.

The agreement also acknowledged the coalition's long-standing concerns for rural, regional and remote communities' access to primary care by providing additional funding for the regional pharmacy maintenance allowance. This additional support will hopefully mitigate our concerns for the viability of community pharmacies, particularly those in the bush. The Albanese Labor government's initial plans would have devastated regional communities. We know that, in some regional towns, the local pharmacist is the community's sole primary health care provider. The loss of those pharmacies would have been catastrophic.

No-one disputes the benefit of cheaper and easier access to medicines, but the government's failure to consult community pharmacies before implementing their policy was clearly the wrong decision. The uncertainty created by the government last year did not need to happen. The recent round of Senate estimates has also left us questioning the impact of the cheaper medicines package that resulted from this new agreement. The department could not explain how the removal of a $1 discount along with the freezing of the current price of medicines will actually make medicines cheaper for those Australians who rely on them. However, the coalition will support this bill because of the result of our strong advocacy on behalf of the Australian community pharmacy sector, which provides critical primary care for our community. But we put it on the record that this has only resulted because the government botched the implementation of their 60-day policy and put Australians' access to primary care at risk.

The coalition will always stand up for both cheaper medicines and a viable community pharmacy sector. The new agreement is a win for community pharmacies, but questions remain as to how much Australians will save in comparison to the taxpayer dollars spent on fixing the government's mistake.

I thank all those community pharmacies across Australia for their advocacy on this bill and, in particular, their advocacy on behalf of making sure that pharmacies right across the country got a fair outcome from their negotiations with the government on the pharmacy agreement.

In particular, I would like to thank the local pharmacies in my electorate of Wannon, because they joined in this campaign because they knew and understood how important it was. They knew and understood the importance of their role in the local community as a primary healthcare giver, and they wanted to make sure that they could continue to play that role. The impact of the government's botched approach was going to be devastating for them. We were going to see employees, sadly, having to leave local pharmacies, and there was a real concern that some local pharmacies would close. So I hope that the minister, through his ham-fisted approach, and the government have learned a lesson from their approach and in particular their failure to consult properly when it came to the cheaper medicines bill.

We all want cheaper medicines delivered to the community. We don't want it done, though, at the expense of regional and rural communities—with pharmacies having to close, having to lay off staff, having to run a skeleton small business rather than providing much-needed services to the community. We obviously support this bill but, as I've said, we hope the government has learned a lesson about properly consulting and, in particular, properly consulting regional and rural pharmacies.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the years I have found that when you want to know why something extraordinary has occurred, you should follow the money trail. Now, if the income of owner-operator pharmacists is going to be halved, who profits by that? Obviously, they're going to go broke. Who is going to take over the job of pharmacies? Well, obviously, Terry White and Chemist Warehouse, the big boys. So what you have done here is impose a Woolworths and Coles upon pharmacies. You took away statutory marketing for farmers. When we had some 286,000 farmers—when I say 'you', in this case I mean the National Party, which deregulated the farmers—we now have 82,000 farmers. Congratulations, Mr Country Party that-once-was, you betrayed every single principle you've ever believed in. That quote from Andrew Gee was a dead accurate assessment.

Coming back to the pharmacies, in this case, you halved the income of owner-operator pharmacists. So they're going to go broke, and who is going to take their place? The big two. And your spokesman in the Senate was so incredibly stupid as to let the cat out of the bag. She said: 'Oh, we haven't had time to discuss it with the Pharmacy Guild, but we have discussed it with Chemist Warehouse.' I bet you did. I bet Chemist Warehouse discussed it with you.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Kennedy. As you are, correctly, directing your comments through me as the chair, it sounds like you're insulting me directly at this point.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're entirely right about my improper behaviour. I will address that issue as I continue my speech.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As an intellectually aware and intelligent person I asked a pharmacist, 'What happens now?' He said: 'Well, my income has halved and I don't know whether I can survive. I suppose I will just have to sell out, and the only buyer out there will be Chemist Warehouse or Terry White. So that is what's going to happen.'

Just when do you people stop? When does the parliament of Australia stop destroying the owner-operator class and start to deliver the country to the people who sell food in this country? Everything else is bought from overseas and now you're destroying the pharmacies? When do you stop? Madam Deputy Speaker, when I say, 'When do you stop?', I don't mean the ALP; I mean both sides of this parliament, and that's probably the reason why, when I came to this place, there was one person on the crossbench and now there's 17. You keep going and we'll be the majority—the crossbench. You keep going. Have a look at the figures in Queensland. If you want to know what they think of how you're governing Australia, have a look at the polling in Queensland; it's very depressing for us, because we were hoping to get the balance of power. You will be annihilated. If the Liberal Party was in there—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On that note, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. If the member's speech was interrupted, he will be granted leave to continue when the debate is resumed.