Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Continuing, the Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025 provides reforms allowing highly skilled nurses to work to their full scope. This helps reduce pressure on hospitals and general practitioners as well as areas where those providing these services are stretched, especially rural and remote communities. Currently, our registered nurses, who are highly skilled and highly educated, remain underutilised in primary care, and allowing them to prescribe under the PBS system will boost efficiency, strengthen care coordination and allow GPs and nurse practitioners to focus on patients with more complex needs.

The legislation implements recommendations from the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce and the Scope of practice review, and, since 2017, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer conducted extensive research and consultation on the nurse prescribing models and what might work. The NMBA, the board, developed the standards for designated registered nurse prescribers through multiple rounds of consultations. These consultations received strong support.

This was a key election commitment that implements key practice reforms for nurses and midwives. The Albanese government has already been working with state and territory health ministers to register and train the first cohort of registered nurses who, from 1 July this year, are expected to complete their training and start prescribing medicines. This is an important step to ensure that all Australians have better access to affordable medicines that they need when they need them.

This bill is just another way Labor is delivering on our commitment to strengthen Medicare. Medicare and PBS are proud Labor legacies, and they have helped millions of Australians receive the quality health care they need. This bill is another part of that legacy. It expands on our commitment to make health care more affordable and accessible to residents across our communities. This bill is an important complement to our $5 billion investment in new uncapped funding into the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, ensuring faster, more affordable access to innovative medicines. As we've heard, from 1 January this year, our government delivered on our commitment to cap PBS prescriptions at $25. Reducing the cost of prescriptions was just one of the cost-of-living measures Labor took to the last election, measures that had overwhelming support not only in the Brisbane electorate but across Australia. The PBS benefits so many Australians.

As of 2024, 930 different medicines were listed on the PBS across more than 5,000 brands. It's critical that all Australians can afford the medicines and medicine related services that they need. This is particularly important for people with multiple health conditions who may be taking multiple medicines, people on low incomes and individuals or their families experiencing high out-of-pocket care costs. This is a policy that really does make a difference to people's lives.

When I'm out and about in my community, the cost of living and health care are often raised with me. In my early morning commuter stops, I've had countless people come up to me and describe how much the $25 PBS cap and more bulk-billing have benefited them and their daily cost of living. This is especially the case amongst many young people who live in my community in Brisbane, who had put off buying their medicines or put off seeing a doctor. I am so proud to stand here in this House and to be part of the Albanese government that really is delivering changes that are making a difference to people's lives.

The last time PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was in 2004. Shrek 2 was probably the highest-grossing film, and I think I contributed a bit to that with some young children at the time. But PBS medicines being capped at $25 is more than just a 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of medicines. It will provide immediate cost-of-living relief to Australians doing it tough. This will save Australians over $200 million a year.

This bill will help make it easier for women to access their medicines, and it comes on top of our government's significant investment in women's health. For far too long, women's health had been overlooked, underfunded and frankly misunderstood. The Labor government promised more choice, lower costs and better health care for women and we are delivering. Hundreds of thousands of women are now accessing cheaper medicines and better care thanks to that investment and recognition.

Since launching the package in 2025, more than 365,000 women have accessed over 715,000 subsidised prescriptions for contraception, menopause treatments and endometriosis care. Contraceptives like Yaz, Yasmin, Slinda are now less than half the previous cost around. They were around $30.80 with a concession card; now they're a lot cheaper. Menopause treatments such as Estrogel, oestradiol and Prometrium now cost $25 a script or $7.70 for concession patients, down from up to almost $670 in some cases. Over 20,000 women have had Medicare-covered menopause health assessments. From 1 November just last year, women have had access to affordable IUDs and birth control implants. From 1 July, two new Medicare Benefits Schedule items were introduced for gynaecological consultations of 45 minutes or longer. This is really helping those women facing complex conditions such as endometriosis, pelvic pain, and there'll be more endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics treating more conditions thanks to the Albanese Labor government.

Just last week I had the pleasure to announce the opening of our new Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Kelvin Grove. Kelvin Grove is in the heart of the Brisbane electorate. Our new Kelvin Grove Medicare Urgent Care Clinic means more affordable, more accessible urgent care for people when they need it most. This was a key election promise I brought to the last election, and I was so proud to stand there and deliver that to the community of Brisbane. No referrals, no bills, nothing to pay. All you need is your Medicare card.

I had the pleasure of walking through the new urgent care clinic with hardworking local state MPs, Grace Grace and Jonty Bush. We chatted with nurse Sammy and Dr John, who are just so passionate about what we and they are delivering for the people of Brisbane. A lot of work and a lot of care has been put into setting up this clinic, which will benefit so many people across the Brisbane electorate. I also dropped into the Kelvin Grove Pharmacy with Assistant Minister Emma McBride, who is a pharmacist herself, where we heard firsthand about the benefits of the $25 scripts and how that is really helping people in the community.

I'm also proud of our government's focus on its commitment to mental health. Last year, I again joined Minister McBride to open the new Medicare health centre in Lutwyche. The Inner North Brisbane Medicare Mental Health Centre in Lutwyche is commissioned by the Brisbane North Primary Health Network and operated by Communify Qld. And I've met so many people, young people in particular, in my community—when I was on the campaign trail and since then—who are really happy that they have access to proper mental health care.

These locals benefit immensely. They can just walk in and see a mental health professional, and they can do that for free and close to home. I've been in that clinic when a young man, a young woman, a family have each walked in looking for care, and that's exactly what they got. Constituents across my electorate have also been telling me how great this easy access is: walk-in, free mental health care close to home.

We can't underestimate what no appointment and no referral means to people. It encourages young people especially to get the help they need when they need it. People continue to walk into that centre—some in distress, some for a chat and others with complex health needs. Regardless, they continue to get incredible care from the practitioners and people with lived experience.

We all know that sometimes people facing mental health distress don't need a doctor. Sometimes they don't need a psychologist. Sometimes they just need somebody to talk to who understands and puts themselves in their shoes. The Lutwyche Medicare mental health centre is truly a professional and responsive wraparound model of care that continues to develop help for many across my electorate, as do other centres that have been set up throughout Australia.

When those opposite were in government, they took any opportunity to undermine our health system. This has had big and long-lasting impacts across our communities. It has meant that people could not access health care when they needed it most. So while those opposite continue to focus on themselves, we're getting on with the job of delivering for all Australians. Labor is the only party that will invest to make health care more affordable whether that's in record investment in Medicare, opening new Medicare urgent care clinics across the country, capping PBS scripts at $25, record investments in women's health or now allowing nurses to prescribe PBS medicines to help ease the pressure on our health system.

I began my working career in the health sector, and I'm really passionate about making sure people in our community and across Australia have access to quality health care. In other countries where I've lived and worked, I've seen what lack of access to affordable health care can do. It destroys lives. It can lead to bankruptcy. It leads to health neglect. We have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, and I am proud to be part of a government that continues to make it even better. And now designated registered nurses prescribing PBS medicines enables safe, timely and effective primary care as well as aged-care services.

I'm proud to be part of the Labor team that delivered real cost-of-living relief, and that continues to make some basic medicines more accessible for constituents in Brisbane and across Australia. And as successive Labor governments have demonstrated, this Labor government continues to deliver the needed reforms to expand and improve world-class health care and a medicines system that we can all be proud of.

This bill delivers on the government's commitment to ensure our health workforce operates at its full scope, enhancing safe and timely access to medicines as well as building a healthcare system that provides accessible and affordable health care for all. This bill is a win for nurses, a win for the people of Brisbane and a win for all Australians. It's a bill with people and care at its heart. It's a bill that delivers on a commitment to provide accessible and affordable health care to Australians no matter where they live.

See this speech in context