Dan Repacholi (Hunter, 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 delivering cheaper medicines for all Australians and making life-changing medicines available on the PBS? Why is this so important after a decade of cuts and neglect?

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

I thank the member for Hunter for the question but also for his amazing work as the Special Envoy for Men's Health. He's busy lifting awareness and having honest, sometimes brutally frank conversations with Australian men about looking after themselves, about getting checked regularly, about seeking help if something doesn't seem quite right and about looking out for each other as well. I'm delighted that the member has agreed to take a leading role this year in the fight against prostate cancer as well. Of course, this is Australia's most common cancer. One in five Australian men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis at some point in their life. Although we have very, very high five-year survival rates, around 4,000 Australian men every single year lose their battle to this cancer.

On Sunday I was delighted to announce the government's 399th new listing on the PBS, a drug called Andriga-10. It's a new combination therapy for advanced prostate cancer that has proved resistant to surgical or chemical castration. Around 2,000 men will have access to this medicine, including Charles Abdilla, a terrific 84-year-old who joined us at the announcement at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Sunday. Before Sunday, this new combination therapy would have cost around $900 per script, or $10,000 a year. Now it will be available to those 2,000 men at affordable PBS prices.

As the member for Hunter knows, we've been busy ever since we were elected, making PBS scripts cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. In our first few months in government, three years ago, we slashed, by 25 per cent, the maximum amount that pensioners and concession card holders would pay for all of their medicine needs in a given year. Since then, pensioners and concession card holders have received an additional 87½ million scripts completely free of charge—scripts they otherwise would have had to pay for—saving them hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Finally, we delivered 60-day scripts for hundreds of common medicines, saving patients more time and even more money. As the Prime Minister has already said, last month we delivered another huge cut to the maximum price of PBS scripts, lowering it to just $25, the same level it was way back in 2004. For pensioners and concession card holders, we haven't just frozen their medicine prices this year; we've frozen them for the rest of the decade.

When we came to government, a million Australians were saying they weren't filling scripts that their doctor had said were important for their health, because of cost. These cheaper medicines policies are changing that equation. It's good for their hip pocket, but it's also good for our nation's health.