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

Our government is slashing the cost of medicines. We delivered for Australians everywhere when we passed that cheaper medicines bill. From next year, you'll pay no more than $25 when you're filling a prescription on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. That is a 20 per cent cut to the maximum cost of medicines under the PBS, and it means that Australians will save more than $200 million a year. We want the PBS to be the very best that it can be, offering more Australians effective and affordable treatments. On 1 October, Australians affected by breast cancer, rare kidney disease and a range of other conditions received access to even cheaper medicines on the PBS, and, for the first time in, unbelievably, 30 years, we listed new contraceptive pills on the PBS. These listings are life changing because, instead of paying thousands of dollars, Australians will have cheaper access to the medicines that they need.