Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Corangamite for that question. I wish the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care was able to give the answer, under standing orders, because she is leading such terrific work in this area. She and I joined literally dozens of female members of our caucus earlier this morning to announce the latest measures in our women's health agenda. Having a government that is 57 per cent women, as health minister you are under no illusion about the truism that you cannot be serious about strengthening Medicare without getting serious about women's health.

For too long we have heard that women have been getting a raw deal from the PBS and from Medicare in far too many areas. For more than 30 years there wasn't a new oral contraceptive pill listed on the PBS; for 30 years there was not a new endometriosis medicine on the PBS; and for 20 years there was no new menopause hormone treatment on the PBS—not because they didn't exist; they did. They were widely used. It's just that no-one bothered putting them on the PBS, meaning that women had to pay top dollar for cutting-edge clinical treatment.

We changed that earlier this year, with an $800 million women's health package. You have seen already, in just 12 months, three new oral contraceptive pills—Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda, widely used by women—three new menopause hormone treatments and two new endometriosis medicines at affordable PBS prices. Already, half a million Australian women have filled 1.2 million cheaper scripts, saving tens of millions of dollars at the pharmacy counter and, just as importantly, getting the dignity, respect and recognition that our system should always have been giving them. But there is more that we can do.

This week, we will list a fourth new contraceptive—this one a ring—which will give women even more affordable choices around contraception. On Saturday, new Medicare services will become available to allow women to access long-acting reversible contraceptives, like implants and IUDs. We think 300,000 women every year, because of that measure alone, will save around $400 to access that different type of medicine. Affordable, accessible contraception is not a luxury. It's not a discretion. It is essential health care.

After the further cuts to medicine prices that we'll see on 1 January, Australian women for the first time will have access to the widest possible range of contraception for no more than $100 a year. More choice, better access, lower costs—that's what we're delivering as part of our Strengthening Medicare agenda.

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