Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister update the House on how a strong economy allows the government to make medicines and private health insurance affordable? How would different approaches jeopardise this commitment to a healthy Australia?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Forrest for her question. She's been a great advocate for better access to medicines such as Orkambi for cystic fibrosis, as well as for better longer-term health studies in her own region. Recently, I was privileged to announce with her an extra $1.5 million to extend the Busselton Health Study, which has been running for over 50 years—the longest-running health study that I'm aware of in Australia.

The member for Forrest knows that we can only do things such as this if there's a strong economy. She knows this because, when the Labor Party were last in government, they stopped listing medicines. When the current leader of the Labor Party—who wants to be Prime Minister of Australia—was the Assistant Treasurer of Australia, they 'deferred the listing of some medicines until fiscal circumstances permit'. That's the person who wants to be Prime Minister, who was the Assistant Treasurer who stopped the listing because he couldn't afford it because they couldn't take care of the economy.

By comparison, we have listed over 1,900 new or amended medicines on the PBS, including Olumiant, a medicine for rheumatoid arthritis, for people with agonising or potentially crippling conditions. What this medicine does is: it uses the immune system to assist in overcoming this extraordinary condition. So that's $16½ thousand a year of savings, and 22,000 Australian patients will benefit from that $16½ thousand a year. So that's what you can do when you have a strong economy.

It's also what we've done in terms of making sure that private health insurance is available and affordable for Australians, with the lowest change in premiums in 17 years—lower than any year when Labor was last in government. But what is interesting is that, as we bring about these reforms—greater access to mental health services, discounts for young people and greater access for people in rural and regional Australia—you look across the table and you think, 'Well, who was in charge of private health, and what was their attitude at the time?' The Deputy Leader of the Opposition was the health minister. And what did she say about her time? 'Every promise I made, I paid for,' she said, when she was health minister, and:

How did I pay for it? I paid for it by targeting private health insurance …

So you have the Leader of the Opposition, who stopped listing medicines, and you have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who took an axe to private health insurance. And their plan right now is to drive up premiums by ripping away the rebate from senior Australians—a 16 per cent hit. So, at the end of the day, we'll protect the health of this nation, we'll protect the health of the economy, and they'll take an axe to it. (Time expired)