Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I'm fully aware of how important the PBS is to the Australian people. I just want to remind the Senate and the Australian people that it was One Nation, prior to the 2019 election, that advocated to drop the prescription cost from over $40 to $19. We were the only ones that advocated that, in 2019, so we're very well aware of the cost on the average Australian out there, with the PBS schemes. And it was then that the Liberal Party did drop it, to about $32, and only after that did the Labor Party come in to drop it further. But ours was at $19, which was supported by the pharmaceutical industry.

The minister has not answered the question with regard to generic brands, and the reason we are questioning this is that the cost is going up; it is costing billions and billions of extra taxpayer dollars. I want accountability that the money is being spent properly by the people who are truly entitled to it—yet you can't even answer that question—to ensure that they are actually covered for it.

The question I have raised is important to taxpayers. I'm not denying people access to the PBS, but I definitely want accountability, and you have not been able to answer those questions in this chamber at all. As I asked you, Minister, what are you going to do to address the generic brands that are available and that are cheaper? Have you put in your legislation that generic brands should be given out first, before the brands of these big pharmaceutical companies, which make their money—hundreds of millions of dollars—out of the taxpayer? Why can't you answer that one?