Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

The laser-like focus of the Albanese government over the past three years has been on providing cost-of-living relief for all Australians, and this National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 delivers on a commitment that we made, in the lead-up to the last election, to make medicines even cheaper for all Australians. We know that, for many, the cost of health care can be a big impost on their household budget, and this bill is designed to ensure that, in particular, pensioners, seniors and people with chronic health conditions get the support that they deserve from the government with the cost of their medication.

We already slashed the cost of medicines with, in 2023, the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS. We're now going even further with this bill. The National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 will mean prescriptions on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, or the PBS, will cost Australians no more than $25 from 1 January next year. This is a more than 20 per cent cut to the maximum cost of PBS medicines, which will save Australians over $200 million each year. The last time that PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was back in 2004—21 years ago. It means that pensioners and concession card holders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at a level of $7.70 until 2030. That's another key cost-of-living measure delivered by the Albanese government.

I mentioned earlier that our focus has been on the cost of living, but it's also been to support all Australians—not some Australians but all Australians. If you're a worker, you benefited from a tax cut and the energy bill rebate. If you're a student, you benefited from the cuts to HECS, the introduction of a prac payment, fee-free TAFE and other supports. If you're a pensioner or a senior in our community, you're benefitting from this as well as the energy bill relief that was provided by the rebate. Making medicines cheaper is a tangible way to really help people with their cost of living, particularly those who have some chronic health conditions that require medications on a weekly basis. These changes will make a big difference to household budgets, and, importantly, they won't add to inflation. That was the brief that we gave to the Department of the Treasury when we were formulating our cost-of-living relief: it can't add to inflation. The success is in the fact that inflation has fallen back down to the RBA's target band of two to three per cent both in headline and in real figures.

This builds on the action that we're taking to deliver cost-of-living relief in health care more generally. In 2022, we delivered a greater range of free and cheaper medicines with a 25 per cent reduction in the number of scripts a concessional patient can fill before the PBS safety net kicks in. In January 2023, there was the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, down to $30 from $42.50. In September 2023, 60-day prescriptions were introduced, saving time and money for millions of Australians with an ongoing health condition. In January this year, we froze the cost of PBS medicines, with co-payments not rising with inflation for all Australians for the first time in 20 years. Our reforms have made a big difference in the community that I represent, with $11 million saved on medicines for people in Kingsford Smith.

This bill includes further specific provisions to protect the availability of discounting. All medicines that pharmacies can discount today can continue to be discounted once the co-payment is cut to $25. It also builds on the reforms that we're making to Medicare more broadly. The increase in the rebate, particularly for pensioners and children, has ensured that there's more access to bulk-billing, and now we're extending that bulk-billing incentive to the rest of the population, so there'll be more incentive for GPs to bulk-bill their patients and more incentive for practices to ensure that all their GPs bulk-bill. That's why we continue to add new and expanded PBS listings to help support Australians who are facing severe health conditions. These new medicines on the expanded PBS bring real relief to Australians who are facing severe health conditions, including those with Parkinson's disease, neuroblastoma, endometrial cancer, cystic fibrosis and melanoma.

So we are delivering on our commitment to make medicines cheaper so that all Australians benefit. Couple that with the decreases that we've already made to medicines and the fact that we're expanding Medicare—it's a good deal for more Australians, to help them with their cost of living.

Much as I know you'd love to hear me continue to speak about the benefits of cheaper medicines, Deputy Speaker, I note that the Minister for Housing is in the chamber and it's now time for her parliamentary statement.

Debate adjourned.

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