Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

It was 87, Senator Ciccone. We delivered the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS, with the maximum cost of a script falling from $42.50 to just $30. We did this because it is the Labor way. We did this because no-one should have to check their bank balance to see if they can afford the doctor and because health care should be accessible to everybody, no matter how much they make or where they live.

We are building on those foundations. From 1 November 2025, Labor will deliver the largest ever investment in the history of Medicare: $8.5 billion to expand bulk-billing and create an additional new incentive payment for practices that bulk-bill every payment. We will also expand the availability of free urgent health care by opening another 50 Medicare urgent care clinics. Just this week, of course, the government passed our cheaper medicines bill so that a prescription on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme costs no more than $25. This is a 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of medicines under the PBS.

Now, make no mistakes, colleagues. The Albanese government is building on the foundations that we laid in our first term. We are restoring and strengthening Medicare, which is something that those opposite were unwilling and unable to do in their three terms. (Time expired)