Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Health Amendment (Passive Immunological Products) Bill 2026. The opposition supports this bill as a sensible technical reform that improves affordable access to immunisation products for families who choose to access these products, particularly families wanting to protect their babies from respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. RSV is one of the most common causes of serious respiratory infection in infants and young children, leading to thousands of GP visits, emergency department presentations and hospital admissions each year. It particularly affects babies under six months of age and places significant stress on families and hospitals, especially during the winter months. It remains a major cause of hospitalisation for Australian children.

This amendment ensures Australia's immunisation framework remains fit for purpose, particularly so that RSV immunisations for infants, such as Beyfortus, can be considered for listing on the National Immunisation Program. Importantly, the National Immunisation Program listing process should not be confused with no-jab no-pay immunisation requirements. These operate under separate legislative and decision-making frameworks, and this legislation does not make any changes to those arrangements. Effective products to protect infants against RSV are already available in Australia and have protected thousands of babies, but access remains inconsistent across states and territories, meaning some families miss out on free access to protection. Listing these products on the National Immunisation Program, should they be recommended through the usual assessment processes, would provide national consistency and ensure families have predictable, equitable access wherever they might live.

The bill updates the definition of 'vaccine' to be more precise, given the current definition simply states that a vaccine is 'a vaccine for the purpose of immunising persons'. This current definition only allows for the listing of vaccines that stimulate the immune system, known as active immunity. The amendment contained in the bill updates the definition to allow for passive immunological products such as Beyfortus, which provide ready-made antibodies to be considered for listing on the National Immunisation Program. These products are already widely used in medicine, including antivenoms and treatments given after exposure to infections such as tetanus.

Importantly, the bill does not automatically list any product. It simply allows products to enter the existing evaluation process. Any product must still go through Australia's health technology assessment system, which is a rigorous and evidence based process to evaluate the safety, clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of new medicines, vaccines and medical devices. Safety, effectiveness and value for money remain central to any listing decisions. This bill simply aims to provide more affordable and nationally consistent access for families who choose to protect their children through immunisation. The need for this reform became clear when products protecting infants against RSV could not proceed through the National Immunisation Program under the current legislation. Almost all children contract RSV by the age of two, and, while many cases are mild, RSV can cause severe illness in babies, particularly those under the age of six months.

Temporary Commonwealth-state funding arrangements have allowed interim access, which has already seen some improvement in the rate of infant hospitalisations due to severe RSV and a decrease in intensive care admissions. However, the temporary and state based nature of the arrangements has resulted in inconsistent uptake across states and uncertainty for clinicians and Australian families. This bill would address these concerns by allowing RSV immunisation products for infants to be considered by Australia's health technology assessment system for listing on the National Immunisation Program.

Taking pressure off our hospitals by removing cost barriers to preventive health care could not be more important than right now, when our hospitals are facing unprecedented pressures. The Prime Minister has failed to take responsibility for the impact of his aged-care crisis on hospitals right across the country, which is taking away hospital beds from families who urgently need them right now.

We know thousands of older Australians are currently stuck in hospital because they cannot access the aged care they need—whether that is home care or residential aged care. This means hospital beds are being taken up by older Australians who have nowhere else to go, which creates dangerous bottlenecks that impact patients with urgent needs, including children with severe RSV. This is a direct result of the Albanese government's aged-care crisis—with more than 220,000 older Australians currently waiting for aged care, a net loss in available residential aged-care beds being projected for this decade and only about five per cent of the new aged-care beds needed to meet demand being delivered last financial year.

The Productivity Commission has exposed a worsening aged-care crisis under the Albanese government, with wait times for older Australians continuing to blow out dramatically over the past year. The new report reveals the median wait time for older Australians to access home care has blown out to 245 days, which is more than double the wait time from just one year ago. Labor promised to put the 'care' back into aged care, but all they have managed to do is put the 'wait' back into the waiting list. As a result, hospitals are being left to carry the load of a system in deep trouble. Again, we support the amendments in this bill to provide families with better access to immunisations that could protect their children from hospitalisation. However, if the Prime Minister really wants to take pressure off our hospitals, he has no excuse left. It is time for him to also take responsibility and to fix the aged-care crisis he has created.

The coalition has consistently supported affordable access to medicines, treatments and vaccines through strong Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and National Immunisation Program systems. Supporting this bill aligns with that commitment; however, more work needs to be done to ensure Australians have timely and affordable access to new medicines, treatments and vaccines as they become available. On average, it now takes 466 days after registration for a medicine to be listed on the PBS under this Labor government. That is more than a year's delay and is totally unacceptable. Behind those numbers are real people waiting for treatments that could change or even save their lives.

Patients, clinicians and industry stakeholders consistently tell us that Australia's system for approving and funding medicines is slow, outdated and overly complex. The health technology assessment review was commissioned to fix precisely this problem, yet, more than 600 days later, many of its recommendations are still sitting unanswered. This review represents a critical and a clinical opportunity to modernise our processes so they remain world class, responsive to innovation and genuinely patient centred. That opportunity must not be wasted. So, while we support the amendments to this bill, the opposition condemns the government's broader failure to ensure Australians have timely and affordable access to life-saving and life-changing medicines and treatments.

Once again, this bill is a practical and technical amendment to ensure Australia's National Immunisation Program remains fit for purpose. It improves affordable access for families who choose to protect their children through immunisation, in particular, in responding to the threat posed by RSV to Australian children. The bill maintains safety and assessment safeguards and it does not change immunisation requirements. Therefore, the coalition will support this bill. However, we will continue to call out the government for dragging its feet on critical reforms to our health technology assessment system to ensure Australians have timely and affordable access to new medicines and treatments, and we will continue to call out the Prime Minister for the ongoing aged-care crisis, which is placing serious pressure on hospitals right across this country. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.