Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the listings that I have referred to over a number of question times, each listing has been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, and the health minister and the government have accepted those recommendations. This course of action differs wildly from what those on the other side of the chamber did the last time they were in government. They were so fiscally incompetent that they stopped listing life-saving and life-changing drugs on the PBS. This is despite the recommendations from the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee that drugs should be listed. In fact, in 2011, Labor's budget papers themselves state, 'The listing of some medicines will be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit'. Well, those fiscal circumstances now permit the listing of these important medications.