Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Tyrrell for the question. There is an important change that the government is making based on the advice of the expert group which has provided this advice to government since 2018, which those opposite ignored and didn't address. It's a significant cost-of-living measure in terms of reducing what people have to pay for their medicines. We know how much that can hit the pocket of many households—six million Australians who rely on regular medicines. In terms of the changes, the impact on the budget—this is from memory, and I will correct this if I have to—is in the order of just over $1 billion in savings to the government, and we are reinvesting all of that back into pharmacy.

We're not disputing that there will be income lost to pharmacies through this, basically because they are not charging people every month for the additional dispensing fees. If they're only charging that once every two months that will impact on pharmacies' income. But it also makes a major difference to people who rely on medicines and how much they pay. These are the decisions that we have thought through carefully.