Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Moore has just outlined the critical nature of the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 and given us a deeply personal insight into why it is important. I commend him for that revelation. I also know of a former colleague, Nola Marino, the former member for Forrest, and her deeply personal crusade about endometriosis. These are important, and I recognise and acknowledge the effort that the member for Moore is going to, in his brief career so far in this place, and I wish him well—and certainly on his health crusade.

This bill is being supported by the coalition—although I note that it has been enhanced by an amendment put forward by the member for Lindsay, and I hope that that is very much carefully considered by the parliament. This bill is consistent with the election commitment of the government. Importantly, though, I need to note that that was matched by the coalition. The bill amends the National Health Act 1953 to reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co-payment, that general patient charge, by $6.60 from the current amount of $31.60 to the new amount of $25. If passed, that will begin on New Year's Day next year.

I know that, during the election campaign and since—and I appreciate that the government has a mandate—there was and has been a lot said about how Labor is the party for good health outcomes and the Liberal and National parties are not. This is simply not true. I also know that what is not true is what Labor talks about—health care being free and that the coalition would have pulled apart Medicare. Health care is not free, and the coalition was in no way ever going to tear down Medicare and what it stands for. It's all well and good for the Prime Minister to produce his Medicare card, that green card which many people use, and it's a great health system we have. If you don't think my words are genuine, then go overseas and get sick. See what other people, who aren't lucky enough to be born Australian, have to contend with when they get ill. We've got a great health system. We've got great health professionals. Is it perfect? No, by no means. But, let me tell you, it's better than anywhere else in the world, and we're very lucky. We've got people who genuinely care about health services and health provisions.

The member for Moore was not here when the health minister was forced, kicking and dragging his feet, to the table to sign the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement. I did note that the member for Moore quite correctly pointed out that a chemist is, as he said, the first doorway into the health system for many Australians—and indeed it is. For many of those regional centres, the friendly pharmacist is the only point of call they have into the health system, and we should be very mindful of the role that our chemists play in the first-class health system Australia boasts. We should never forget that, not just when the accord needs to be signed but at all times.

Under this government, the cost of health has increased 15 per cent. In the last term of the Labor government, bulk-billing rates dropped 11 per cent. They are not insignificant numbers. They are not. I know that the health minister, from the leafy suburbs of Adelaide, came out and said: 'If you can't find a doctor to bulk-bill you, just make another appointment. Pick up the phone, see if you can find another appointment and go with that doctor.' It might all be well and good in Glenelg, West Torrens and anywhere else in Adelaide. It might all be well and good in Brisbane, in Sydney, in Melbourne and in any other capital city you care to mention. But I tell you what: when you live in remote Australia and the only doctor in town, if you're lucky enough to have a doctor, is not bulk-billing, you can't pick up the phone and get another doctor, because that other doctor might be five hours away—and that's by plane. We're not blessed with that many doctors in regional, rural and remote Australia—particularly remote Australia.

Everybody would like cheaper medicines—and I acknowledge the government's push to have cheaper medicines—but let me also tell the House of a few of the things that we did, as a government, which are often scorned by those opposite, who maintain that, when they came to office, there was a trillion dollars worth of Liberal Party debt. That's not true either. It was nowhere near that.

I'm sorry, it was not anywhere near that. It probably is now, but it was nowhere near that back then. We did have a global pandemic to deal with and over 93 per cent of Australians got protection from vaccines under the former coalition government. I know there are a lot of people out there who are scaremongering about vaccinations at the moment. I will tell you what people who decry the value of vaccines would do well to do: go and visit a cemetery and look at the number of headstones from prior to the fifties and sixties—before vaccinations were made mandatory—with infants' names and ages on them. Go see the number of bubs who weren't able to make it into adolescence, let alone adulthood, because they passed away too soon because there weren't vaccines available. The other thing that the former coalition government was praised for, by the John Hopkins index, no less, was the fact we were ranked second in the world for pandemic preparedness, and that's something I think we should be very proud of.

There were 502,413 people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and we now see the problems with the NDIS. My office deals more with NDIS issues than with any other single matter or concern which comes before us via email or any other means. There are issues with the NDIS, not least of which is the cutback to pricing and payments. This means that those NDIS providers who travelling are now cutting back their services to people who need them and are outside the major regional hubs. This is because the travel cost is being absorbed into the overall cost allowed for by this government. This change came into place on 1 July, and, when you talk about health outcomes, that is of critical importance because it means that the most vulnerable of our society, people who have disabilities, are now not going to receive the allied health that they need, whether it's podiatry, physiotherapy, speech therapy or the like. That's cruel. That's sad. It's truly unnecessary. As a regional member, I will continue to fight for those people who aren't being given those services.

Under the former coalition government, there were more than 94 million telehealth consultations through Medicare to 16 million patients. Telehealth will never replace, or should never replace, face-to-face consultations. But, when you are in a remote or regional part of Australia and you don't have that face-to-face professional care, then telehealth is the next best thing and the number of consultations increased under our watch.

There have been 857 new medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since 2019. That's a significant number. I praise and I welcome any listing on that scheme. I realise that new listings have got to go through PBAC. I realise there's a process that is required for a listing, and I do appreciate that the pharmaceutical companies want to get their pound of flesh too. Earlier, I heard the member for Moore talking about kidneys and kidney medicines, drugs and treatments. But, particularly when it comes to medicines that ease the suffering from cystic fibrosis, I also support such listings. I appreciate the government has done something in that regard, as we did for heart health and for any sort of health. I say thank you to the government for any work they do on health. I truly acknowledge that.

There are more than 128,000 Australians supported by headspace, and I welcomed the Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Ms McBride, to Wagga Wagga just recently. We visited the walk-in clinic in Baylis Street. When I was in government, we were able to bring headspace to town, just like I was also able to bring it to Griffith and fund it for Cowra. Anything that can be done in the headspace space has got to be valued and praised. To that end, I thank former member for Sturt Christopher Pyne for the pioneering work he did for headspace in its early years, when the genesis of headspace was being brought to this parliament. There were 1,400 additional nurse placements for the regions that also came about under the former coalition government; that's a good thing. We should be acknowledging that work that we did.

In the time remaining, I also want to thank the government—here you go—for the work that it's done to fund the Maddie Riewoldt's Vision service that is being provided. Maddie Riewoldt passed away in 2015, all too young, from bone marrow failure syndrome. Her very famous AFL relatives, Nick and Jack, and her wider family are very much supporting that vision that she had—and that they have—and continue the work in this regard. My niece, Elizabeth Shaw—she's married now and has a little baby, Max—has a future because Maddie Riewoldt's Vision is going to be so beneficial for her. Now, with her doctor husband, Dr Byrnes from Wagga Wagga, I know they are going to have a bright future, and I thank the government for that.

But I am very disappointed that the government didn't see fit to continue to fund the colorectal centre in Melbourne that we funded. I wonder why that wasn't funded for the few million dollars that it would have cost to carry on the vital work they were doing to help babies, particularly, who were born with that condition. That colorectal centre was providing great hope and opportunity for those children, and it's now just been taken away for the few million dollars that it would have cost. I will continue to work cooperatively with government to see it funded in the future, because it is all too vital not to be funded.

At the end of the day, if people can get cheaper medicines, if people can acknowledge the role and responsibility that our pharmacies play, particularly in regional Australia, then that has got to be seen as a good thing. If we have a healthy nation, we have a happy nation and we have a productive nation. I know we had a productivity roundtable last week. I'm not too sure how much health was a part of that, but health is vital. If we get our health system right, if we get the distribution of medicines right, we will increase productivity and we'll have a better nation, besides. Certainly, we need to ensure that those rollouts of vital medicines and vital health services are done in rural and remote regional Australia, where so much of the heavy lifting for this nation is done.

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