Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government making medicines cheaper for all Australians? Why is it important to make medicines cheaper? And what are the risks to cheaper medicines?

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

I thank the member for Robertson for his question. He knows that, when we came to government, about a million Australians were saying they were either deferring or not filling at all the scripts their doctors were giving them because of cost. That's why the member for Robertson promised his electorate on the Central Coast that we would make medicines cheaper.

We have delivered on that promise. There are 66 million additional free scripts for Australia's pensioners. We made the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the history of the PBS—down to $30—and we finally allowed doctors to issue 60-day scripts, giving patients twice the amount of medicine for the price of a single script. Already, these measures alone have saved Australians $1.3 billion at the pharmacy counter, but we know we can do more.

That's why this year we froze the price of PBS medicines for Australia's pensioners right up until the 2030s. That's why last week the Prime Minister announced that we will cut the maximum price for general patients even further, down to just $25. Had we done nothing in this term of parliament, that price would have hit $50 next year—not $25 but $50. For example, the half-a-million Australians who are now on Eliquis, a very important stroke prevention medicine, would have been paying $600 a year for that life-saving medicine. Next year, with a 60-day script, they'll pay just $150—a 75 per cent saving delivered by Labor.

As the question says, of course, all of this progress is at risk. Last week, as the Prime Minister said earlier, the Leader of the Opposition said, 'Past performance is the best indicator of future practice.' And he's right. So let's look at this man's past performance. Of course, as health minister, he tried to jack up the price of medicines by up to $5 a script and make pensioners wait even longer to access the free medicines we're currently delivering them by the tens of millions. This term, more recently, they voted against our cheaper medicines policies and consistently described our measures as 'wasteful spending'.

As we lead into the election, my guess is that the Leader of the Opposition is now going to put his hand on his heart and promise there will be no cuts to Medicare: 'Cross my heart. Hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye!' It's just like in 2013, when, time and time again, he promised there'd be no cuts to health. Well, we know there'll be cuts, and we know Australian patients will pay, because that's his past performance—because, in his heart of hearts, he's never supported Australia's Medicare. He wants an American style system of user pays. (Time expired.)