Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I don't want to know! The member for Wannon was probably wandering around, listening to rock music or something like that. It was a long time ago, 2004. I can tell you times have changed a lot. We don't want to, necessarily, roll back the clock. I don't think the member for Lyons, the member for Wannon or I want to roll back the clock; we enjoyed the experiences we had in the last 20 years. But guess what we do want to roll back the clock on? PBS medicines. That's what we want to roll the clock back on. We could be in a time machine here in this parliament. We could go back in time to the cost of PBS medicines back in 2004. Isn't that amazing? Jules Verne would be very proud of us here at the Australian parliament. So we're setting the price of PBS medicines to a figure of $25. We remember, but some people might not have even been born in 2004.

In all seriousness, since we formed government, Labor have provided Australians with the largest cut to PBS medicine prices in the history of the PBS. Thanks to our $689 million investment into the PBS, we have brought down the cost of medicines from $42.50 in January 2023 to just $25 by the beginning of next year. That's remarkable. Making cheaper medicines even cheaper is our way of providing real solutions—real outcomes—to easing the cost-of-living pressures felt by all Australians.

Unlike those who sit across from us, we are delivering on our promise to bring down the cost of medicines. It doesn't matter whether you live in metropolitan cities or the most rural areas of our vast country; you too will be able to afford the medicines you need most when you need them.

I've been doorknocking around my electorate of Wills a fair bit, even after the election as well, just saying g'day to constituents. I've heard firsthand how cost-of-living pressures are affecting my constituents. On the doors, I met with a woman, a mum of four, by the name of Lucinda. Lucinda described to me how her son had recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and that she had had to decrease her hours at work to care for her son. She made the choice to look after her child, which meant less work. Now that the joint income of her family has decreased, the family is feeling the pressure of the cost of living even more. Luckily for Lucinda's family, her son's epilepsy medication is one that is listed on the PBS, meaning that they will have to pay only $25 from the beginning of next year, down from $42.50. The time machine is working. To put it into perspective, the same medication in the US without health insurance would be—I don't know if anyone wants hazard a guess here?

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