Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On the day before the election, the Prime Minister was asked by Sam Armytage on Sunrise:

You have however committed to a freeze on the GP rebate. Can you guarantee our viewers will pay - will not pay more to see the doctor due to this freeze?

The Prime Minister responded:

Sam absolutely …

Does the Prime Minister stand by his absolute guarantee that Australians will not pay more to see the doctor as a result of his freeze?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and the opportunity to remind honourable members that we are delivering increases in Medicare funding every year and we are seeing record levels of GP bulk-billing, meaning most Australians are not paying to see the GP or for the tests they need. We are driving the costs of medicines down through our price disclosure policy in the Sixth community pharmacy agreement. In our first three years, we listed nearly 1,000 new medicines—three times as many as those opposite in their last three years in government.

Earlier today I was fortunate to speak to Kathy Gardiner. Kathy Gardiner started battling melanoma at the age of 25. She lives in Brisbane. Three days before her 33rd birthday she was given the devastating news that her melanoma had progressed to a terminal stage of advanced metastatic melanoma, a disease which claims 1,500 Australian lives every year. In 2014, there was a groundbreaking immunotherapy treatment for advanced melanoma, now known as Keytruda, to which she was granted early compassionate access. She was a strong advocate for the listing of the drug on the PBS so that all people with advanced melanoma could access it, which at the time was costing $150,000 per treatment. Keytruda was listed by our government on the PBS in September 2015, and—thanks to our prudent management of the public finances of this country and our prudent management of our health spending—it can be accessed at a cost of $6.20 for concessional patients or $38.30 for general patients.

Kathy told me that from October 2015 and right now she has a 'no evidence of disease' result. Nearly a year has elapsed since then, so she is filled with hope. She continues to fight the prognosis and she takes every day as it comes. But she said to me that this drug provided her with a quality of life with minimal side effects—something that many drugs are unable to provide a patient, particularly for advanced stage cancer.

Now when we are chastised by the opposition for our management of the health budget, I would ask them to think of Kathy Gardiner and her quality of life and her recovery, because it was our management of health that made it possible. (Time expired)

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek to table the absolute guarantee the Prime Minister gave before the election, which he will not do now.

Leave not granted.