ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'm very proud to be announcing that today we will ensure that the price of medicines is cut even further. I came to office committing to reduce the price of medicines from $42.50 down to $30 that were on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. What we have announced today is that from 2026, that will be reduced further down to just $25. This is cheaper than at any time since 2004. Making a real difference to cost of living, whilst also putting that downward pressure on inflation. And I also have an important message today. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a source of pride for Australians. It is not up for negotiation, and it certainly is not up for sale. It's something that guarantees that people can get the assistance they need through pharmaceuticals, when they need it, at a proper and affordable cost. We have also frozen, of course, the costs of pharmaceuticals under the PBS for concession card holders and pensioners to just $7.70 up to the year 2030. What this means in practice is that had we not taken the action that we have, the price of medicines would have been $55 rather than just over $25 in 2030. Less than half. Less than half as a direct result of these measures. Labor will always defend the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, just like we'll always defend Medicare. If you look at the policies that we are implementing, proposing for our second term, they are across the board looking after people's health. Whether it be making it cheaper and more affordable to see a GP by tripling the bulk billing incentive for all 27 million Australians that we expect will see over 90 per cent of Australians seeing a GP for free. All they will need is their Medicare card, not their credit card. The additional 50 Urgent Care Clinics, adding to the 87 that we've opened already, making an enormous difference for Australians. I was at the one just up in the Caboolture region just the day before last, making an enormous difference. More than a million Australians have seen someone at a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, got the care they need when they needed it and all they've needed is their Medicare card. So seeing a doctor for free at the GP. Seeing a doctor for free and getting the care they need with urgent care. Being able to have affordable medicines. These measures combined, in addition to the $1.7 billion of additional investment we put into hospitals in the coming year. It stands in stark contrast with what happened the last time Labor wasn't in office was, of course, 2014. There we saw $50 billion ripped out of public hospitals. We saw an attempt to impose a GP tax every time people visited a GP. We saw an attempt to visit an emergency department tax every time people ended up in a hospital. And we saw legislation introduced to increase the costs of pharmaceuticals by $5, not decrease it. All of that happened of course on Peter Dutton's watch as the Health Minister. So we need to look at what people do, not just what they say. What Labor does is talk about health care, talk about the importance of Medicare, but most importantly, take action to defend and strengthen Medicare. That is what we are doing with today's announcement. And I want to pay tribute to the Pharmacy Guild and to our pharmacists who go out there and provide that advice, that health care for their patients. They have a one on one relationship with patients in their local community that is second to none and they provide such enormous support. And I pay tribute to them not just for advocating in the interests of their business, but importantly, what they do is continue to advocate for the people that they serve. And for that they deserve enormous praise. And I was very proud to be able to make the announcement in front of thousands of pharmacists here on the Gold Coast this morning. We're going to hear from the Health Minister. Then we'll hear from Trent Twomey. Then we're happy to take questions.
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thanks Trent, for hosting us at APP again. A huge conference bringing together the nation's community pharmacy owners. As the Prime Minister has said, cheaper medicines are a terrific policy, partly because they're good for the hip pocket, and they obviously are at a time of real cost of living pressures. But they're also good for the health of our country. Because we know that cheaper scripts are more likely to be filled by patients when they're dealing with a whole lot of pressures on their household budget. Without the measures we have put in place as government, the maximum price of a PBS medicine next year would be more than $50. If we're elected, it will be half that at $25. A huge benefit for Australian households and a huge benefit for the health of our country. This will be the fifth instalment in the cheaper medicines promise that we made at the last election. Already saving Australians more than $1.3 billion at the pharmacy counter. They've been strongly supported by the Pharmacy Guild and I want to thank them for that. I have seen though some comments from Peter Dutton that he will reflect or back in the promise that we've made over the course of today. And I just, as the Prime Minister has done, caution Australians not to look at what Peter Dutton says, but look at what he did. As he was becoming Health Minister 10 years ago he said there'd be no cuts to health, and then when he was elected tried to jack up the price of scripts by $5 a script. When we brought Cheaper Medicines to the Parliament over the last couple of years, he voted against them. As we've put instalment after instalment in place of cheaper medicines policies, the Liberal Party has consistently described them as wasteful spending and said that they would be on the chopping block if the Liberal Party were elected to government. So this man has form on this. He's got to be accountable for his record. And I caution Australians not to look at what he says today, but to look at what he's done over a long career of favouring an American style user pay system in health, rather than the universal healthcare system that Labor has built in this country. I've also seen some comments about the PBS over the course of the last few hours. Let's be clear about the historical record. When the Howard government was negotiating the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Big Pharma in America tried to do exactly what they're trying to do today, to put pressure on our Australian PBS scheme. And the Australian Labor Party insisted that there be amendments put through the Australian Parliament that would secure our PBS. They were opposed by John Howard, they were opposed by the Americans, and they were opposed by John Howard who backed in American industry over the interests of Australian patients. So don't let the Liberal Party try to rewrite the historical record. The only reason there is legislative protection in the US Free Trade Agreement for our PBS is because of the insistence on the part of the Labor Party. Only the Labor Party can be trusted to protect the PBS in the current climate.
TRENT TWOMEY, PRESIDENT OF THE PHARMACY GUILD OF AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you, Minister. Pharmacists of Australia are exceptionally proud to partner with over 20 different national patient groups to work with the government to deliver on this initiative. The Australian Bureau of Statistics told us that one in five Australians were delaying, deferring or going without getting their medicine dispensed because of price. And this rose to one in three Australians in regional, rural and remote locations, and in fact, one in three women. So what this proposal will do is it will take our PBS down the right path. Before this Government's initiatives to lower the price of medicines, we had the third highest out of pocket expenses for medicines in the developed world behind the United States and Switzerland. We only have a universal healthcare system in Australia if we have a universal PBS. Before these reforms, 51 per cent of medicines cost a different price depending on what brand of pharmacy you entered. 51 per cent of medicines cost a different price depending on what postcode in Australia you lived in. After these reforms come into fruition in 2029, 71 per cent of prescriptions will be the same price, no matter which pharmacy you choose to go to and no matter which postcode you live in. Pharmacists are trained health care professionals to have a conversation with you and your family about the health care advice that you need. We are not trained financial advisers to give you advice on the family budget. We know we're in a healthcare crisis, but this investment does not stay in community pharmacy, it flows through community pharmacy. Every dollar that the taxpayer is investing in this flows directly into the hip pockets of Australians. So thank you, Prime Minister, Thank you, Minister, for returning the principle of universal access to medicines in Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much. Happy to take some questions on this firstly.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you disappointed the Coalition is neutralising your health announcements by immediately matching them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you have to look at what they do, not what they say. And before the last time that government changed to the Coalition in 2013, they famously said, ‘no cuts to health, no cuts to education’. The budget papers are there for all to see. $50 billion cuts to health. $30 billion cuts to education. Attempts to bring in GP tax, increased the price of pharmaceuticals. And when that didn't succeed, freezing of the GP rebate for six years which saw bulk billing go into free fall. Labor believes in Medicare as the central heart of our health care system and then the arteries flow out, including the PBS, as being absolutely critical. Labor created the PBS under Curtin and Chifley and has defended it ever since and always will. Labor created Medicare under Bob Hawke and will defend it and always will.
JOURNALIST: What will you do if Trump threatens tariffs over pharmaceutical exports because of the PBS?
PRIME MINISTER: We'll stand our ground. This is not for sale and is not up for negotiation. This is a part of the Free Trade Agreement because Labor insisted as a condition of our support for the Free Trade Agreement. So the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a part of who we are as Australians and we will always stand up for it. It's not up for negotiation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the PBS is actually not, it is a scheme of negotiation whereby the Australian government buys medicines from the US. The Free Trade Agreement has nothing to do with medicines listed on the PBS. Are you not starting a PBS scare campaign? And how are you going to protect Australians from higher price for medicines when we negotiate the price through the PBS?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I didn't write the article on the front page of the paper, with respect -
JOURNALIST: I think it came from my article actually –
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you wrote the article so you're running the scare campaign apparently -
JOURNALIST: I did not write that one, I wrote one that they took it from. But the PBS is not a scheme of negotiation -
PRIME MINISTER: We will defend the PBS and we won't be negotiating over the PBS. We will not -
JOURNALIST: But you do negotiate over medicines on the PBS –
PRIME MINISTER: Could I get to answer? We will defend the PBS. We will not be negotiating over whether we have the right here to put pharmaceuticals onto the PBS. That is what we will do.
JOURNALIST: Just back to US tariffs. Do you think that there is any room to get an exemption if they were imposed?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll continue to put Australia's case. Tariffs are an act of economic self-harm. They increase the price at the point in which sale or purchase of Australian goods occurs and that is our position. We’ve put it forward very strongly. The United States enjoys a two to one surplus. That is they sell twice as many goods in value to Australia as we sell to the United States. Therefore, the imposition of tariffs is certainly not in the interests of the United States, and obviously it's not in the interest of Australians either.
JOURNALIST: I've got one more on the PBS. The Australian Labor Party posted this on Instagram. We're just wondering your thoughts on it? For Medicare?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not going to look at a video.
JOURNALIST: How did you come up with the $25 figure?
PRIME MINISTER: What, sorry?
JOURNALIST: How did you come up with the number? The $25 figure?
PRIME MINISTER: We think that's a reasonable figure that we worked through with our Cabinet process and with as well with the Pharmacy Guild. We're pretty happy with that figure. We think that the reduction in price from $42.50 down to $30 made a difference. This will make even more of a difference.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what did you make of the treatment of women, those allegations that surfaced from that 60 Minutes report?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, they were appalling.
JOURNALIST: Just on salmon farming, if that's okay. What changes exactly will you make to the Environmental Protection Act to ensure salmon farming is guaranteed in the Macquarie Harbour?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people will see the legislation next week as we committed to introduce. We'll be introducing it and we expect it to be carried.
JOURNALIST: In the PBS will there be transparency in how you fund the PBS given this is another cost? And how is it not inflationary when you're putting money into people's pockets?
MINISTER BUTLER: Well, we've seen Treasury talk about measures like this before over the last few years. This has reduced the price of medicines. Measures like cheaper childcare, we've designed these very carefully to put downward pressure on inflation, as the Prime Minister said in his speech.
JOURNALIST: Just a question for the Prime Minister. While millions in Northern New South Wales and South-East Queensland were waiting for Cyclone Alfred, you attended a fundraiser just like Peter Dutton, who Labor attacked for doing the same. How do you justify that?
PRIME MINISTER: I travelled to Queensland on the same day that Peter Dutton travelled away from Queensland.
JOURNALIST: But on March 4 you attended the fundraiser.
PRIME MINISTER: I travelled away from Queensland on the same day, to Queensland on the same day that Peter Dutton left Queensland.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on a local issue on the light rail. Will you support extending the light rail to the airport?
PRIME MINISTER: There's a business that case needs to be conducted. I'm someone who as Infrastructure Minister put $365 million through the Federal Government into the stage one. That was opposed by the LNP, state and federal. Steve Ciobo and local federal members went out there and collected petitions against it. So what we did was make sure that the Gold Coast Light Rail Project got done. And that was important not just for residents of the Gold Coast, it was important for the success of the Commonwealth Games, and it's important for all the visitors who come to this fantastic region of Australia where tourism plays such an important role. Thank you.