Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Can I thank Senator Ananda-Rajah for that excellent question. I know she knows a lot about the health system and understands, as all Labor senators and members do, the importance of delivering cost-of-living relief.

In 2023 we made the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We brought the maximum price of PBS listed medicines down from $42.50 to $30 a script, and we did this for all Australians. Australians have saved more than a billion dollars thanks to our pledge to make medicines cheaper, and now we are doing even more. My colleague Mr Butler will introduce legislation this week to cap the cost of a PBS prescription at $25 a script and continue the freeze for pensioners and concession card holders at $7.70 until the end of the decade. This government, having already made the largest reduction in the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS, is now delivering a further election commitment and delivering more cost-of-living relief to Australians—in particular, to pensioners—because we on this side believe that no Australian should have to skip the medicines their doctor says they need just because they can't afford it.

We all remember how those opposite responded to the Albanese Labor government's implementation of cheaper medicines. We all remember what they did. What can we remember? They opposed it. They opposed it all. They voted against cheaper medicines for Australians. They voted against more money in the pockets of Australians. They voted, over and over again, against cost-of-living relief for Australians. They still haven't listened and they still haven't learnt.