Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

What we have just seen is quite extraordinary. We have had the government move a disallowance motion on their own policy. The reality here is that we've just seen the most breathtaking doubling down on their own arrogance. We have a situation here where we've got a really, really good policy that is before the Australian people and before this parliament, and that is to allow Australians to get access to cheaper medicines through dispensing over a 60-day period instead of a 30-day period. The opposition have been very clear since the get-go that we support cheaper medicines for Australians and we support 60-day dispensing. What we don't support is the implementation of a really good policy in a really bad way that has the potential to negatively impact on Australians, most particularly vulnerable Australians.

I would remind Mr Albanese of his own words when he said, 'If I make a mistake, I will own it and I will fix it.' Mr Albanese, you and your government and your health minister have made a mistake about how you've gone about implementing this policy. Why don't you own it and you accept the offer of the opposition to have the chance to fix it over the next 3½ weeks? But, no, instead you pull a political stunt which shows your true colours. You don't care about Australians getting access to cheaper medicine. You just care about the stunts. If you cared about Australians getting access to cheaper medicines, you would ensure and you would guarantee that this measure would not cause one pharmacy to close, and you would guarantee that this measure would not make one Australian worse off. Sadly, we believe that many Australians will be made worse off by this policy, and those Australians are likely to be vulnerable Australians with chronic diseases who require lots of medication. They're likely to be older Australians, particularly those that live in aged-care facilities, and they're likely to be people who live in rural and remote communities, where often the pharmacist is the only healthcare professional in town.

In the attempt to rush through this policy so that they can have the big headline about affordable medicines, this government failed to do their homework on the detail. You failed to consult, you failed to model. Let me tell those listening: the government currently has a review being undertaken by McKinsey into the flow-on impacts of this particular policy. They have not received the report from McKinsey, and yet they still want to put the policy in place. They, by their own admission in the impact statement, said that this policy is likely to cost $158,000 on average per pharmacy off the bottom line, and they seem to think that that is okay.

Well, what we are saying in our offer today—and our offer still stands—is that you can take these next 3½ weeks while the Senate is not sitting to get back to the table, negotiate the seven community pharmacy agreements in good faith and make sure that we get the best of both worlds. Cheaper medicines with 60-day dispensing and good policy do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can actually put in place 60-day dispensing as well as ensure that pharmacies don't go broke, Australians aren't worse off and services aren't cut. And Mr Butler can honour his election commitment, which he put in writing to the Australian community pharmacy sector, that said he wanted to work with them to ensure the application of the seven community pharmacy agreements occurred without there being any negative impacts on the viability of the pharmacies or on Australians getting access to pharmacy health care. He put that in writing. It seems that this government is happy to make big announcements and election commitments, but it's not so happy to implement them when they get into government.

What we're saying to the government today is that it's not too late. It is still not too late. This instrument is still alive. Pull the instrument temporarily—just put a pause on it—get back to the table to speak to the stakeholders and make sure this policy works for everyone. It must work for patients, work for pharmacists, work for suppliers, work for wholesalers and work for the government and the taxpayers of Australia. You still have the opportunity to do this, but what we have just seen is so embarrassing. You've got the government actually moving a motion to disallow its own policy. You've got a government that is more than happy to do that with no regard whatsoever for Australians, so we call on the government to stand in this place and guarantee us that your policy, as it is currently proposed to be implemented, will not cause one pharmacy to close and will not cause one Australian to be worse off. If you can stand there and say that hand on heart and prove through your modelling that that will occur then everyone will congratulate you. But you can't. We're giving you the chance to do that, so I would suggest that you take up our offer.