Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

Today, as we debate in this place the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025, I think it's important to remember how what we now know as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, or the PBS, came to be. It didn't fall from the sky. It was the vision of the Curtin Labor government to provide free prescription medicines to all Australians following the postwar availability of new antibiotic drugs. But it faced significant hurdles, including from those opposite, from a High Court challenge to the opposition of conservative political parties and doctors of the day who viewed the PBS as what they called 'the first step towards nationalising medicine'. The PBS was originally struck down by the High Court, with a constitutional amendment in 1946 paving the way for the scheme's introduction. Nowadays, every Australian can rely on the PBS to get the medication they need affordably and when they need it.

As a pharmacist, a local MP and an assistant health minister, I am incredibly proud of our government for helping to make medicines more affordable for millions of Australians. From my first speech in this place, I have advocated for cheaper medicines. Back in 2016, I said:

As a pharmacist, too often I saw patients … forced to make decisions that no-one should have to make about skipping medications … because they simply could not afford to pay.

I worked at a TerryWhite pharmacy in Tuggerah. Parents would come in with a shopping load full of groceries and antibiotic prescriptions. I remember parents saying to me, 'Can I get one antibiotic mixture made up to share between my two children?' They were different antibiotics, and that wasn't appropriate, but that was what was happening because of the underinvestment of the previous government in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Patients were forced to skip, delay or avoid filling prescriptions. Young people, families and older people must be able to continue to access the best health care—rather than simply what they can afford to pay—through universal health care in the form of Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Since coming to office, it's been our Albanese Labor government that has been working to deliver cheaper medicines, because that's what Labor governments do, and that's what Australians deserve.

This bill will reduce the PBS general co-payment from $31.60 to $25 from 1 January next year. As a pharmacist working in community pharmacy, I remember the indexation linked to CPI that would happen every year. This now won't happen. This is delivering on the Albanese Labor government's 2025 election commitment. A lot of the former speakers have reflected on the fact that they were in primary school in 2004 when the PBS scripts last cost $25. For me, the last time PBS medicines cost no more than $25, I was working in community pharmacy. I was working as a locum between two community pharmacies on the Central Coast—at Noraville pharmacy and also at the Blooms pharmacy in Wyong. This was more than 20 years ago and it is the last time that general PBS medicines cost $25.

As Minister Butler often says, this is good not just for your health but for your hip pocket. This is a tangible difference that the Albanese Labor government is making. It will provide cost-of-living relief. Having already slashed the cost of medicines in 2023 with the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, we're now going even further, providing even more cost-of-living relief for millions of Australians. This is a more than 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of PBS medicines, which will save Australians over $200 million each year. This is a saving of $200 million each year for Australians accessing vital medicines.

Importantly, pensioners and concession card holders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of their PBS medicines, which has been frozen at $7.70 until 2030—as the Prime Minister said earlier today, until the end of the decade. This will keep older people who rely on multiple medications well within our communities and give them peace of mind about the cost of medications. This builds on action we've already taken to deliver cost-of-living relief through cheaper medicines, including more free and cheaper medicines sooner, with a 25 per cent reduction in the number of scripts concession patients must fill before the PBS safety net kicks in.

When I was working in community pharmacy, people still had the PBS cards that they would stick their PBS stickers onto, and I remember the relief when you would say to somebody, 'You've now reached the safety net,' and issue them their safety net card, which meant that, for a concession card holder, they would then receive their medications for free until the end of that year—until Christmas. That made such a big difference, particularly to pensioners. Knowing that they are now reaching the safety net sooner is making a really big difference to people and families.

As I mentioned earlier, it will be the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, with the maximum cost of a general script being cut by $12.50 from 1 January next year. It was estimated that, by this time, if our government hadn't slashed the cost of medicines and now had this next cut, the cost of medicines would probably be around $50 for a PBS prescription. It'll now be $25 from 1 January next year.

We've also frozen the cost of PBS medicines, with co-payments not rising with inflation for all Australians for the first time in 25 years. That could often be an uncomfortable conversation for pharmacists to have with patients or families at the beginning of each year when medications that they relied on increased in cost. This gives so many patients peace of mind.

Just last week I was with Ryan, one of the new owners, in partnership with Jess, at Direct Chemist Outlet in the Central Highlands in Emerald—and Jess, the partner in that business, is actually in the building, in parliament, today—and I met their final-year students, Emma, Meg and Gemma. Ryan, as a relatively new pharmacist/owner, asked me: 'How can I help spread the word? I know just the difference this will make to people and families in my community, and I want to help you spread the word so people know about this sooner.'

Last month, I was at Cincotta Discount Chemist in Macquarie Fields with the new member for Hughes, my colleague and friend David Moncrieff, and we were talking to the pharmacist/owner Sam. They were undergoing a big refit of their pharmacy, but he was really generous with his time. He let us know the difference that the cut to the cost of PBS prescriptions had made already and the difference that it would make in the future. We met with the nurse who worked within his pharmacy, and she spoke to us about the difference that, over 20 years, her work has made within that pharmacy.

But Sam was also saying to us that, because of the greater investment that our government has made in the PBS, he's not charging patients for the packing of dose administration aids—which people often know as Webster-paks—because that additional cost can sometimes put them out of reach of people. So he proudly displays a sign at the dispensary in his pharmacy that says 'Free Webster-paks'. He offers those Webster-paks to people living in their own homes, because older people are often taking multiple medications, which we often call polypharmacy. So being able to have their medications packed for them, so they know that they are taking the right medicine at the right time, can go a long way towards people being able to stay safely in their own homes and manage their medications better. Sam is thrilled that he'll be able to support more patients when the next cut in the cost of prescriptions comes into effect on 1 January. I know the member for Hughes has said that he will be going back there and hearing from Sam to see just the difference that it's making in his community.

I did have the opportunity to welcome the Deputy Prime Minister to my electorate of Dobell, on the New South Wales Central Coast, recently. We went to Kuoch Chemist at The Entrance, and pharmacist/owner Raymond was telling me the different that the cut in the cost of PBS prescriptions had already made to so many people in our community and how he was able to make sure that people were able to access the medicines they needed when they needed them, and fewer people were having to delay or avoid filling prescriptions because of cost.

I am just so delighted, as a pharmacist and the only pharmacist in this place, and as a member of a Labor government, to know that we founded the PBS—that it was the vision of the Curtin Labor government to make sure, when antibiotics became available, that everybody could have access to them, so that, after the war, people returning and widows and their children would be able to access medication. And—despite those opposite, and a High Court challenge, and Menzies slashing the number of prescriptions on the PBS—the PBS has survived and is now thriving. It is one of the pillars of universal healthcare in Australia, along with Medicare.

Before I conclude, I just want to mention some of the work that we're doing in mental health. I was talking to the member opposite about our shared interest in mental health and suicide prevention. Providing medicines more affordably means that people can access the health care that they need. Also we're rolling out services in communities, to make sure that more people have access to support closer to home when they need it. I know that that is a shared interest of everybody in this House—making sure that all Australians can get the support and care that they need.

Today is really a very significant day. It is us now, as a government, enacting our election commitment—the promise that we made to all Australians, wherever they live, that they'll be able to have cheaper medicines. I know the difference that has already made since we cut the cost of prescriptions back in 2023 by $12.50—then the biggest cut to the cost of PBS prescriptions to occur.

Now patients, people and families right across the country will know that, from 1 January next year, we will see the biggest reduction in the cost of PBS general prescriptions, with the co-payment going down to $25 per prescription. That is on top, as I've already mentioned, of the fact that we've already had the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, that we've frozen the cost of PBS medicines for pensioners and concession card holders, and that we've introduced 60-day prescribing—saving time and money for millions of Australians with ongoing health conditions.

This is the fifth tranche, building on the four other significant changes and improvements that we've made to the cost of medicines and to the PBS. I will be heading to the Pharmacy Connect conference next weekend. I was at the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia conference in Sydney only two weeks ago, hearing the relief and optimism pharmacists right around the country feel for their people—particularly their patients and their customers—in knowing that medicines are now more affordable and will continue to become more affordable. It is already making a big difference, and it will make an even bigger difference from 1 January next year.

I am very proud to speak on the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025, building on the significant work that we've already done. I look forward to 1 January 2026, when we will see the biggest cut to the cost of PBS prescriptions in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I want to thank those within the pharmacy sector for their advocacy and for acting in the interests of families right across the country, including the Pharmacy Guild, who are in the building today; the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia; AdPha; and others.

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