Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ananda-Rajah for the question. Again, this is one of those areas where we came to government and saw that not enough had been done to make sure people could afford their medicines. So it was about addressing Medicare and bulk-billing and also making sure that medicines are affordable, because we know that, when they're not, people don't take them and their health suffers.

The legislation that passed the parliament yesterday means that from the beginning of next year the general patient co-payment will be $25 for a PBS medicine. It has not been that low since 2004. That is a result of the legislation and the commitment we took to the last election to make sure people could afford their medicines. This built on the commitment we made in the previous term to bring the price of medicines down to $31.60 and now down to $25. And of course the other thing we did in the last term, which those opposite opposed, was 60-day prescribing, to make sure people can get two scripts for the price of one, and those opposite opposed it. (Time expired)