Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Immediately after the election, the Prime Minister said he had learned a clear lesson about his cuts to Medicare. What lesson did he learn? What policies did he change? What cuts has he reversed? Can the Prime Minister answer this question without another tantrum about a text message?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. He shows his glass jaw very neatly there. Clearly the text message is a bit of an issue for them. It is amazing: eventually even the Leader of the Opposition realises that deceiving millions of vulnerable Australians is wrong. Even the Leader of the Opposition is starting to feel the shame, just a little bit. It is creeping up. It has got up to his ankles. It has a long way to go, but he is starting to recognise that maybe it was not such a great idea to send out a lying message purporting to be from Medicare and designed to deceive. His own health spokesman did not seek to defend it on the basis that it was true, did not seek to defend it on the basis that it was accurate, but sought to defend it on the basis that people had already made up their minds and it would not have changed their opinion anyway. The member for Isaacs is not here, but if he were he would assure you that would be something you would say as a plea in mitigation on sentencing, not to get off the charge. It was an outrageous falsehood.

We are investing record levels in Medicare every year. Because of the way in which we are managing the finances that we apply to public health, we have been able to add many high-cost life-saving drugs to the PBS. Let me give the House a real-life example. On Monday, 1 February this year, we listed a new drug, ruxolitinib, an investment of over $180 million over the forward estimates. It is used for the treatment of the condition of myelofibrosis, a rare cancer of the bone marrow. Myelofibrosis is debilitating, potentially life threatening and affects approximately four in every 100,000 Australians. This new listing allow over 950 cancer patients to receive this PBS-subsidised treatment with ruxolitinib. One of those patients is Marilyn Harvey, who lives in the electorate of Boothby. When asked about taking this drug, Marilyn said: 'It's like a miracle. I have less pain. I'm able to move more.' This has had a real effect on her quality of life. Without that PBS subsidy, without our ability to manage those finances so it was available, she would face unaffordable costs of up to $100,000 a year for this life-saving treatment. That is what we are doing with public health: managing it in the interests of Australians.