Jess Teesdale (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How is the Albanese Labor government continuing to make medicines cheaper for Australians?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Bass. The Prime Minister and I launched our $9 billion investment in Medicare with the member for Bass in the great city of Launceston. From that day, she has been just the most terrific advocate for a stronger Medicare. She also understands the power of cheaper medicine. I read her speech in the contribution to the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill that just passed the parliament. She told a really powerful story about a couple of pharmacists that the member for Bass had spoken to, one in Kings Meadows and another in Ravenswood, both in the heart of her electorate. They told her stories of parents standing at the pharmacy counter and weighing up which prescription they could afford to take home and which one they would have to leave behind. She said that no parent in Australia should ever have to make that choice, and with this bill fewer families at will. And she is absolutely right.

When we came to government, the ABS told us there were around one million Australians every year going without filling a script their doctor had said was important for their health, because of cost. Most members in their contribution to the debate told a similar stories to that of the member for Bass. And that is the power of cheaper medicines. It's good for the hip pocket—a really important cost-of-living measure—but it's also good for health. It's good for the health of Australians and good for the health of their kids. Last night the Senate passed legislation to deliver the fifth wave of cheaper medicines reforms under this government. From 1 January, the maximum co-payment on a PBS script Australians will pay is $25. As the Prime Minister points out, that's the same price it was all the way back in 2004. Indeed, without the two big cuts this government has made to the PBS co-payment, that figure would have hit more than $50 next year. Instead it will be less than half of that. Just this change, passed last night by the parliament, will deliver $200 million in savings every single year to general patients, and that's on top of the $1½ billion Australians have already saved at the pharmacy counter through the first four waves of our cheaper medicines reforms.

This is another important step in this government delivering on the solemn promises and commitments we made to the Australian people at the last election. More urgent care clinics are already rolling out. Investment for more bulk-billing will start on 1 November. Last night we delivered even cheaper medicines for Australian patients.