Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the last election, Labor promised the Australian people cheaper medicines. The National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 is about keeping that promise. Under this bill, the most you will pay for a script on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is $25—just 25 bucks—the lowest amount since 2004.

Let me take you all back to 2004 for a moment. The hit TV show Friends was in its final season. Usher was top of the charts with 'Yeah!' featuring Lil John and Ludacris. Google launched Gmail, and Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room. As for me, I was going to my high school formal with diamante butterfly clips in my hair, which was very of the time. And the general co-payment for PBS scripts was just $25. Well, we're taking you back to 2004, and for very good reason: because cheaper medicines isn't just good for your family budget; it's good for your health, too, and that means it's good for our health system.

During the election campaign Labor looked the Australian people in the eye and said we would focus on what matters to you, like lower costs and more-accessible health care. I heard from people up and down Queensland about how much this matters to them, how much they would save if they got their regular prescriptions for less, the difference it would make to their family budget and the peace of mind you get from knowing you can afford the medicines your family need. We promised cheaper medicines, and now we are delivering.

This bill will reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co-payment from its current amount of $31.60 to $25, a saving of more than 20 per cent. And, under Labor, concession cardholders, like pensioners, will pay even less. We've frozen concessional co-payments at just $7.70 until the end of 2029. These measures build on the work the Albanese government and health minister Mark Butler did during the last term, when they slashed the cost of maximum co-payments down from $42.50. And we've introduced 60-day prescriptions for common medicines that are used on an ongoing basis, saving time and money for millions of Australians who have an ongoing health condition. That has saved those Australian patients around $250 million already and has allowed them to avoid more than 35 million unnecessary trips to the pharmacist.

Not everyone agreed with these measures, but Labor did them because they were the right thing to do. This bill builds on that work and it fits in that mould. From 1 January next year, millions of Australians will pay less for their PBS prescriptions than they will if this bill does not pass. That's why I urge all senators to support cheaper medicines. It's what the Australian people voted for, and it's what they deserve,

This fight is personal for me. As I said in my first speech, I grew up in a single-parent family who relied on bulk-billing doctors, on Australia's world-class health system and of course on an affordable PBS. We couldn't have survived without it. These are the things good Labor governments have delivered, and we're taking up the fight to protect those essential rights for all Australians. In fact, without Australia's universal health system, I probably wouldn't be standing in this chamber today. When I was just 16 years of age I was diagnosed with a serious autoimmune condition. It is a condition that would hospitalise me for a long time and threaten to rob me of my quality of life. I credit my doctor for giving me a new treatment that had just come out of clinical trials and was showing positive results for people with my condition. This treatment was costly, and my doctor had to write to the federal Department of Health to get approval to administer it to me. That drug saved my life as I knew it.

I carry with me every day a debt of gratitude for our public hospital system and our amazing doctors and nurses. If it wasn't for Australia's affordable medicines I wouldn't be standing in this chamber today. So I will spend every day I have in this chamber fighting for Medicare and fighting for medicines to remain affordable in Australia. Australians should know this is real, because right now in my home state of Queensland we are seeing the conservatives talking about privatising our hospitals—well, not on my watch!

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is one of Labor's proudest achievements. Along with Medicare, it has become an essential part of who we are as Australians. That's why cheaper medicines are just one of the ways we're delivering on our promise. We're even opening more Medicare urgent care clinics and investing in Medicare mental health clinics, where you can go with no appointment, no referral and no payment needed. We've opened Medicare mental health clinics in Lutwyche, in Caloundra, in Caboolture, in Strathpine, and soon in Redcliff too. We're making the biggest ever investment in bulk-billing, so you can see a GP for free when you need to.

The Australian people voted for action on health care; now Labor is delivering it. I urge all senators to vote for cheaper medicines and this bill.