Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025, implements the Albanese Labor government's 2025 election commitment to reduce the PBS general patient co-payment from $31.60 to $25. Having already slashed the cost of medicines in 2023 through the largest cut to these costs in the history of the PBS, we are now going even further with $25 medicines. This is a more than 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of PBS medicines that will save Australians over $200 million each year. Medicines haven't cost $25 in Australia since 2004—the same year Kath & Kim was at its peak, Jet was topping the charts and I was finishing high school.

This is an election commitment I am extremely proud of because we do not want a single Australian to go without the medicines they need because they cannot afford them. Four out of five PBS medicines will now become cheaper because of our investment. And this builds on the work we've already done like investing in an additional 18 million bulk-billed GP visits each year, expanding the bulk-billing incentive to all Australians and tripling the number of fully bulk-billed practices. We've implemented 60-day prescriptions, saving time and money for Australians with ongoing health conditions. We're ensuring Australians can access more free and cheaper medicines sooner with a 25 per cent reduction in the number of scripts that a concessional patient must fill before the safety net kicks in, and we're investing in Medicare urgent care clinics across the country—including one in my home community of Sturt. And, given it's Women's Health Week, I should mention that we are investing in more choice and better treatment in women's health through an investment of almost $800 million.

I am extremely proud of our record on health. Labor built Medicare and we will always fight to defend it and strengthen it. This bill implements our commitment for $25 medicines. It's good for the hip pocket of Australians and it's good for their health. Through this bill, we are delivering cheaper medicines and a stronger Medicare. I wholeheartedly commend the bill to the Senate.