Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How will the government's cheaper medicines bill impact Australian families and help people with rising costs?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the member for her question. Today we introduced legislation to provide cheaper medicines in accordance with the commitment we gave at the election campaign launch at Optus Stadium in Perth. We know people are doing it really tough, and we know household budgets are under pressure. We know they've suffered from rising prices but they've also had a decade of deliberately low wages, so we're slashing the price of medicines by a third. For the first time in its 75-year history the price of medicines on the PBS will go down next year. Labor created the PBS; now we're making the price of medicines cheaper. The maximum price will be $30, saving $12.50 per script. A family that has three prescriptions will save around $450 every year.

This morning, I met Greg Ryan, a single parent whose son has type 1 diabetes. Medicines are a big part of their family budget. This is what Greg had to say to me at the pharmacy in Kingston this morning: 'Insulin is a non-negotiable cost for type 1 diabetes. You're never going to want to choose whether you can afford this particular medication or can afford something else. Insulin is non-negotiable. Any help to reduce the cost of it is greatly appreciated. It's going to make it easier for lots of families like ours.' It was indeed very good to be with him and with Trent, the head of the pharmaceutical body here in Australia. We've worked closely with pharmacies in delivering this policy because we know in particular that Australians, if they needed any reminder, were given a huge reminder during the COVID pandemic, which is ongoing, when pharmacists kept serving people, kept providing those services and kept their relationships up with their GPs. Pharmacists are the centres of their local communities, and we are taking action to provide meaningful, lasting cost-of-living relief in medicines.

Next week we'll have our childcare legislation, which is also very important in lowering costs for families and bringing employers, unions and civil society together, as we did last week, to lift wages and boost productivity. We want to make sure we bring people up in terms of their economic security so they can live the lives they aspire to.