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

I welcome the pharmacists in the gallery here. I welcome the work they do and the work they did all through the pandemic, particularly. They were the most accessible health service in almost all of our communities through three years. I welcome a question about our commitment to cheaper medicines. We are delivering on our commitment to make medicines cheaper for all Australians at a time of cost-of-living pressures hitting all people in Australia, particularly people who are reliant upon medicines not just for one month because they have an infectious disease but for years and years, if not decades, because they have chronic disease.

But there is more to do. Although we have a strong record of cutting the price of medicines in just 12 months, there is more to do. We did accept the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee that there could be 60 days of supply for 300 common medicines prescribed for chronic disease. And that is not new advice, because the former government received that advice five years ago about common medicines for chronic disease.

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