Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister advise the House what steps the government is taking to ensure that the best medicines are available for Australian patients?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bowman for his question and recognise his expertise and his input into health policy. I also recognise the Prime Minister's commitment to the $1.3 billion listings of new medicines and vaccines in this year's budget that will save lives and improve the quality of life for thousands of Australians.

Tuesday's budget listed new drugs to help beat breast cancer—Perjeta and Herceptin; for melanoma—Mekinist; and extended indications for eye disease, most relevant to the member for Bowman as an eye specialist—the drug Lucentis. The government will also extend free vaccinations for the debilitating shingles virus to older Australians aged 70 to 79 by listing it on the National Immunisation Program. This is part of our commitment to ensure that Australians have access to affordable medicines as and when they need them.

But with listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme approaching $50 billion over the next five years, it is imperative that taxpayers—and, by extension, governments—make this money available for life-threatening diseases and our responses to them. We have 29 new and amended listings per month on the PBS compared to Labor's eight listings a month. It was part of our election commitment that, when drugs pass the PBAC, they get listed as expeditiously as possible—and we are maintaining that. But, with more and more drugs in the pipeline, it becomes vital that we keep the PBS sustainable and that it continues to grow at a sustainable rate. In addition to the $1.3 billion in new drugs that I have announced, there is $3 billion in new recommendations on the table. Negotiations across the whole of the supply chain for medicines have been positive, proactive and have had patients at the table the whole way through. But where this leads—and no-one would ever want to be political about an issue to do with lifesaving drugs—is that we must have the savings. We must manage the budget responsibly. We must, as the Prime Minister said, invest and continue to invest. With $2.3 billion in added expenditure across the health portfolio, that is important.

Where is Labor's plan for savings? It is nowhere. In this year where a thousand good ideas were going to bloom, the only thing that the opposition spokesman has said is that cuts could be made across the system wherever they are found. There is nothing in the health landscape. There is no idea from Labor about how to manage this problem and how to keep patients, doctors and the community at the centre of the healthcare system. We maintain our responsibility.