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

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the Albanese Labor government strengthening Medicare for all Australians?

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

Last night, our plan to make medicines cheaper passed the parliament, cutting the cost of a PBS script from $30 down to just $25. That follows up from what we did in our first term to cut it from $42 down to $30. Had we not done that, if we'd continued the policy that was in place under the former government, those costs today would have been more than $50. So in fact we have cut the cost of medicines by half for people who need them, many of whom, of course, will need multiple scripts. On top of that, we have 60-day dispensing, something that those opposite said would lead to massive closures of pharmacies. We wouldn't be able to find them anywhere around Australia—what nonsense! It's another example of their speciality of scare campaigns rather than engaging in good policy. We've also frozen the cost at just $7.70 until the end of the decade for concession card holders, making an enormous difference. At the last election we promised to do all this, and now we have delivered on this promise, something that makes an enormous difference to communities that we represent, easing cost-of-living pressures right across the country.

But it also says something about the way that we do policy. We consulted with the Pharmacy Guild, we consulted with senior Australians in particular and we consulted with people in the health sector about what was needed—a nation committed to Medicare, committed to the Australian idea that, when you get sick, you get the care that you need, not because of your bank balance but because you have this little piece of green and gold plastic—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister will not use props.

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

your Medicare card. I thought that might provoke a reaction. But I did the right thing; I kept the shirt in the office. Our government is committed to strengthening Medicare for all Australians—strengthening it by making medicines cheaper and making them cheaper again; strengthening it through the urgent care clinics, another 50 of which we're going to open, and our $8½ billion investment in bulk-billing; and strengthening it through 1800MEDICARE, a 24/7, bulk-billed telehealth service. Our government is committed to Medicare and strengthening it for all Australians now and into the future.