Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to make it very clear that the opposition supports cheaper and easier access to medicines. In fact, during our time in government, between 2013 and 2022, we listed 2,900 new or amended medicines on the PBS. And we know that Labor stopped listing medicines in 2012 because they couldn't manage money. In 2022 we reduced the safety net thresholds for all Australians who rely heavily on prescription medicines. We led the way with the policy to reduce the co-payment, a policy that the Labor Party subsequently copied. So the track record of the coalition on supporting Australians into affordable medicines is absolutely undeniable, no matter what those opposite might try and claim.

What we object to about the latest policy of this government is not the concept of 60-day dispensing but the means by which the Labor government is intending to implement it. Let's be clear. The government is claiming credit for a cost-of-living relief measure that is being paid for entirely by Australia's 5,900 community pharmacies. That's 5,900 largely small businesses.

The government are also being totally disingenuous about the money they are claiming to be reinvesting in community pharmacies. Firstly, they're only proposing to spend $1.2 billion, which is the savings to government because of the dispensing fee and the AHI, or handling fees, and the items that they're proposing to expend money on under this particular measure are not new funding for community pharmacies; it's just money that's going in and out again. So there is no real benefit to pharmacies at all.

But the real kicker in this policy is that the government have remained totally silent about the up to $2.4 billion of income that will be forgone by community pharmacies because of the reduction in the number of co-payments that the pharmacy will be able to access. So, despite the then shadow minister for health and now the minister, Mark Butler, making a commitment to community pharmacies that a Labor government would not seek to undermine their viability, that is exactly what this government has done.

In a letter dated 12 May 2022 to the president of the Pharmacy Guild, the minister, Mr Butler, said this:

Labor … looks forward to working with the Guild to ensure the implementation of the current community pharmacy agreement includes reforms that do not negatively impact on either the viability of community pharmacies or patient's access to community pharmacy services.

Fast-forward to today, and we learn through a report by renowned economist Henry Ergas that 665 pharmacies will like close as a result of this measure, 20,000 Australians are likely to lose their jobs, existing free services are likely to no longer be available and, when they are, there will be a fee charged for them—things like home deliveries, blood pressure checks and filling Webster packs. We know that the impact will be disproportionately felt by the elderly, the more vulnerable, and rural and remote communities because they are always more greatly impacted than metropolitan areas. We also know that it's likely there will be increased emergency department interactions due to less opportunity for pharmacies to triage.

Today the government doubled down on its policy, claiming that it rejected the findings of Mr Ergas, but we know that the government's own impact assessment found that the policy was far from best practice and that 'the community pharmacy sector will be significantly impacted' by this measure. We also know the policy hasn't been modelled, thanks to the Minister for Finance's advice at estimates. We know the policy wasn't consulted on prior to the announcement, because even the National Rural Health Commissioner wasn't consulted. We know the Pharmacy Guild wasn't told that they were wearing the full cost of this measure until six days out from the announcement.

There's a very dangerous pattern of behaviour starting to emerge with this government: they announce a catchy retail headline, there's no detail, they don't consult, they don't consider secondary effects and then they try and retrofit a justification for the policy.

So today, again, the opposition is calling on the government to go back to the table with all pharmacy stakeholders and make good on your pre-election promise to not negatively impact the viability of community pharmacies. If you want 60-day dispensing and affordable access to medicine, then negotiate with the guild to keep good faith with the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement, or get on with negotiating the eighth agreement.

S enate adjourned at 20:10