Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the Minister for Health announced that the government will expand free access to glucose-monitoring devices for pregnant women, children and more adults with type 1 diabetes, saving people up to $7,000 a year. The investment of an additional $100 million in funding over the next four years will ensure that free glucose-monitoring devices are available to over 37,000 eligible people with type 1 diabetes. It is only because the government has strong economic management that we can make sure that these medicines are available, and it is only because of this strong economic management that we can actually make this investment in type 1 diabetes. Not only can we keep putting more and more medicines on the PBS; we can make sure that people can live fuller lives primarily because we have a strong economy.

Type 1 diabetes attacks a person's ability to produce insulin. People with this condition must be able to monitor their glucose levels day and night, and continuous glucose monitoring devices continually monitor a person's glucose level and provide alerts if the glucose levels drop too low. Once again, it was a fantastic announcement yesterday of $100 million over the next four years to make more and more people with type 1 diabetes able to live fuller lives.