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

I thank the member for Hawke, who is part of this terrifically talented new generation that was voted to the Labor benches at the last election. He, along with all those members, promised Australians cheaper medicines at the last election, and in just 12 months we have already delivered three waves of cheaper-medicines reform that will save Australian patients hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

But we know there is more to do, and that is why we accepted the advice of the medicines experts who manage the PBS to allow doctors to issue 60-day prescriptions for common medicines for ongoing health conditions at the price of a 30-day script, halving the cost of these ongoing medicines for six million Australian patients. It is not only good for their hip pocket but also for their health, because we know from overseas evidence that it will improve medication compliance and will free up millions of GP consults, which are so desperately needed out there in the community. So it is good for the cost of living and good for health. That is why so many other countries to which we would usually compare ourselves already do this, already allow 60- or even 90-day scripts. That's why we have received such strong support for this measure from every single patient group and every doctors group in the country.

I'm asked about obstacles. The first thing to say about that is, as the Prime Minister just said, this is not new advice. The same advice was delivered by the same experts to the former government five years ago, and they did nothing. They chose to support the pharmacy lobby over the interest of patients. As a result, those patients have shelled out hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in fees they didn't have to pay. Now, you can say a lot of things about those opposite, but at least they're consistent. Yesterday they lodged a motion to block access to cheaper medicines for six million patients, once again backing the lobby over the interests of patients—exactly what you would expect, frankly, from a party led by a man who as health minister tried to jack up the price of medicines by $5 a script.

We know how important cheaper medicines are at a time of a global cost-of-living shock for millions and millions of patients. We know how important it is to free up the health system after the pressures of three years of a pandemic. Whatever the coalition and One Nation try to do over in the Senate, we are determined, with or without the coalition's support, to deliver cheaper medicines to Australian patients.

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