BRIDGET ARCHER: Well, welcome to Mowbray, to the Terry White Chemist here in Mowbray. A really important announcement today. We hear a lot at the moment about cost of living pressures, and obviously we have taken some measures to address cost of living so far. But something that I hear as I move around and I talk to people is about the cost of medicines, and particularly for people who regularly take medications, people like myself with asthma, you know, taking regular preventative medication or people with diabetes that have those regular recurrent costs. So terrific to welcome the Prime Minister here today to make some important announcements about that.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Thanks very much, Bridget. And it’s great to have Trent here as well, the President of Pharmacy Guild. And it’s great to be here at Brad Pharmacy here at Mowbray’s and also to have young Amelia with me as well. This is not just a pharmacy, it’s a family business. And like all pharmacies, all are pretty much all around the country. There are few premises like this in our local communities that are more in touch, I think with local communities that our pharmacists. Pharmacists are trusted as and playing a much greater role in our primary health care each and every year, whether it’s flu shots or all the other advice that they provide to their to their clients who come in and and really trust them about the role that they play in their daily lives. I know that it’s certainly been the case for Jenny and I and our family. In the Budget this year, we understood the need to take action to provide relief on cost of living pressures, and we know those pressures are real, we saw that reinforced again this week. And those pressures, as we know, are coming from all around the world, particularly the war in Europe. But the after effects and lingering effects of what’s happening with COVID. And even more recently, we started to see a surge in the numbers, the impact of things like the floods and so on, as we know, they have a particular impact on things like food and groceries and things of that nature. So we are seeing many things impact on the cost of living here in Australia. And so because our economic plan is working, because we were able to turn around the Budget by $100 billion in the last 12 months, what we were able to do was provide immediate cost of living relief. Yes, we cut the petrol tax in half. Yes, we provided $250 to pensioners and many others on fixed incomes, concession card holders, the more vulnerable in our society were given immediate support and they would be receiving those payments over the course of this week. And on the 1st of July, for taxpayers on middle to low incomes, they will keep $420 more of what they earn with the tax relief additionally that they will receive on the 1st of July. In addition to that though, we did introduce in the Budget, from the 1st of July, changes to the PBS safety net threshold – concessional patients which will reach the safety net with 12 fewer filled scripts each year, and that will save them some $81.60 over the course of the year. And that means they can, once you hit that threshold, they get medicines for free. So that’s what’s going to concessional patients. For general patients, it’s two fewer scripts. So you can get to that safety net quicker. That was in the Budget, providing that support through the PBS to support people who rely on these medicines. Now, that’s true for families, but it’s also true for those self-funded retirees and others who may not be on concessional cards. But as they get older, then,of course, they’re reliant on more and more medicines. But as Bridget said, those who are on puffers, those who are on heart medication, those potentially on blood pressure medication, and many other things that are regular costs month after month after month. And so what we’ve decided to do from the 1st of January, re-elected as a government, what we will put in the mid-year statement in the mid-year Budget update is we will include a new measure which will see the cost of non-concessional PBS payments fall from $42.50 down to $32.50, what’s known as the PBS General Co-payment. This will save patients taking one medication a month, just as we heard here today, $120 a year. And that’s on top of the improvements that we’ve already made for non-concessional patients when it comes to the safety net threshold that we’ve already put in place. And this is going to be important for people to deal with those additional pressures. There are many things you can’t control, you can’t control the war in Europe, you can’t control natural disasters, you can’t control whether there’s a pandemic or not. All of these things impacting on the prices Australians are paying every day. But what you can do, is what we’re doing, you can provide that relief as we did in the Budget, you can make the safety net more generous to help people who are on these medications and you can reduce this non-concessional payment down by $10 on every single strip script. Now, the reason we can do that is because of a strong economy. The reason we can do that is because of how we manage money. The reason that we’ve been able to list some 2,900 in new and amended listings on the PBS. The reason we can do that is because of the way we manage the Budget and the priority we put on these medicines. Now we know that when Labor was in power and they lost control of the Budget, they lost control of the borders. They had to cut things. They cut the defence budget. They also didn’t list important medicines on the PBS and those included medicines for severe asthma, chronic pain, schizophrenia, blood clots, IBS, IVF, endometriosis and enlarged prostates. Medicines on all of those things not listed because Labor couldn’t manage the Budget. That’s why this election is a choice. It’s a choice between a government who knows how to manage money, who knows now how to support a strong economy which enables us to do the things of guaranteeing essential services. And if you need these medicines, then I can think of no more essential service for you to get access to. And under our economic management, we’ve been delivering those. A Labor Party who in the past couldn’t do this because they couldn’t manage money. A choice between a government that you do know and an opposition, a Labor opposition that you simply don’t. Now I’m going to ask Trent to say a few words. We’ve been working closely with the Guild, not just on this issue, but many, many issues over the years. And I want to thank the Guild, Trent, for the cooperative relationship we’ve had, whether it was working through how we get vaccines disseminated, how we do flu vaccines, all of these things, and how we further involve our pharmacies in our primary care model across the country. It’s an important relationship in delivering primary health care to the community. Trent.
TRENT TWOMEY: Thank you. Thank you, Prime Minister. Thank you, Bridget. And it’s good to be here in Mowbray. Brad, sorry for the disruption this morning, but thank you for hosting us. And Brad knows in his pharmacy here, and I know in my pharmacy in Far North Queensland, many, many patients, in fact, the ABS said there was over 900,000 Australians who delayed, deferred or went without getting their medication. And this is a very real step towards addressing the issue of medicine affordability. There’s nothing discretionary about essential medicines. Essential medicines aren’t something you can choose to go without one week or take half the prescribed dose. If your GP has written a prescription for it, it’s because by its very nature it’s essential. So accessing a bulk billing doctor is important. Having an emergency department there when we need it is important. But if we can’t afford the treatment that is prescribed, then we are going to add to the pressure of those other two elements of the health care system. Now, we met some patients this morning that have diabetes. Those medications will be $10 cheaper. We met some patients this morning that have chronic asthma. Those medications will be $10 cheaper. And we met a fellow who had had a stroke and he has a stent put in and he’s really important blood clotting medication will now be $10 cheaper. So this is a first. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has been around since World War Two, and this is the only time that medicines have gone in a different direction other than up. So while we welcomed the safety net announcement, Prime Minister, thank you for that, in the Budget, and that provided help for people over the course of a calendar year. What this does is help our patients paycheque to paycheque at the cash register. So Brad and I can stop having those awkward conversations about which one is less important than another. Because if your doctor has written you a prescription, it is not discretionary. It is important. So I just want to thank not only Bridget and and you know, let’s talk about Bass, we’re standing here in Bass. There’s $69,500 that will now be cheaper for the people of Bass each and every year, so, prescriptions rather, and that’s $10 a prescription, so that’s $690,000 extra for the seat of Bass and $3 million for for all of Tasmania. And that adds up to $150 million a year. So this is not just a big figure of $150 million a year. This is ten bucks that’s just gonna help you with your family budget week to week. So. Prime Minister, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Trent. And I should stress this is a permanent change. Obviously follows indexation into the future and we’re also ensuring that no-one is worse off on any existing medications and that will be dealt with through legislation when Parliament returns to ensure that those who are on discounted medicines, will continue to get those discounts wherever they’re getting them from. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there’s analysis by Medicines Australia that’s revealed it takes on average 496 days for a cancer medicine, 528 days for a heart medicine, to be listed on the PBS once they’ve been approved and registered for use. Some cancer medications are taking up to eight years, meaning Australians have had to dip into their super or turn to crowdsourcing in order to keep themselves alive. Will you commit to overhauling the process, so that Australians don’t have to wait eight years or crowdsource?
PRIME MINISTER: Australia has, I would argue, one of the most successful and protective regulatory systems on medicines anywhere in the world, and our advisory committees that support us on these issues have been enormously helpful. And that’s why we gave the commitment that once the doctors say we can listed, we list it. They define the processes for deciding whether these medicines should go forward and get onto the PBS. That’s not decided by the Government, that’s decided by doctors, clinicians, and that’s an important part of the process. And I have no doubt that they will always seek to do that in as a compassionate and as timely way as they possibly can. They more than others, they’re clinicians themselves, understand the importance of all of these life saving and life changing medications. So, of course, we will always encourage them to try and do this as quickly and as efficiently as they can, but importantly that they do it safely. Safely approving the medicines that go forward onto the PBS. This is an important part of the process. It’s a part of the process that Australians rely on for their own safety and on those matters. We certainly trust the doctors. The clinicians that are making those recommendations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this announcement today, it’s going to come into effect next year if you’re re-elected.
PRIME MINISTER: 1st of January, yes.
JOURNALIST: Why didn’t you put it in this year’s Budget, so it was guaranteed rather than saving it as an election promise?
PRIME MINISTER: What we’ve done in the Budget is put in place some temporary measures to deal with cost of living. And they are temporary, whether it’s the $250 payment, which is providing that relief right now, whether it’s the halving of the petrol excise, which is providing that relief right now. Now all of that, plus the $420 that comes in from people being able to keep what they’ve earned on the 1st of July. All of that is helping them get through over the balance of what is this pressing period when we’ve got particularly high fuel prices. What this is, is the next step. Those temporary measures provide a transition to other, longer term measures. And this is a longer term measure. This is an ongoing measure, and this is a very significant change. And so there’s legislation that needs to go in, come in, to ensure that those guarantees on existing discounts remain in place. This is an important change for the future, and it will be done in a methodical way.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, I didn’t think I had an answer there as to why it wasn’t included in the Budget, given there was so much talk about cost of living. And also on a couple of occasions this week, your Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, has suggested that China timed the announcement of its deal with the Solomon Islands to coincide with this election campaign, alluding to, I guess, some attempt to sway it. Are you accusing of Beijing of interfering in our election campaign? And what is your evidence and Karen Andrews evidence for suggesting that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I believe I did address the question previously saying they are temporary measures we put on the Budget, longer term measures that we will put in the mid-year statement. That is a fairly common way that we do Budgets. There are matters that we put in the Budget which start on the 1st of July. If you can start something on the 1st of January, then you introduce it later in the year and it goes into the mid-year Budget update. That’s the way Budgets run. And so this is a longer term measure and it was going to start next calendar year. And so we’ve been able to, the reason we’re talking about it now and normally we would make an announcement like that later in the year. But we’re going into an election, we’re going in an election. So people need to know what we plan to do. So we’re being very upfront. I mean, the Labor Party at this election seems to be saying, look, we’ll make it up when we get there. They’ve had three years to actually tell you what they plan to do and no-one, three weeks out from an election is any of the wiser of what they’re proposing to do. They announce reviews and things like this, so their basic proposition is, put us in and we’ll make it up when we get there. That just says one big thing to me and that is risk. These are very uncertain times and Australians don’t know what their economic plan is because Labor doesn’t have one. Labor hasn’t got the record on managing the economy and that’s why anything you hear from them during the course of this campaign, you got to put a big question mark on it because if you can’t run an economy, if you can’t manage money, then you can’t make the sorts of commitments that we’re making right here. We have listed 2,000 and we’ve amended listings, 2,900 medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Most recently Trodelvy, Trikafta, these types of medicines which are life changing and we can do it because we’ve been able to manage the Budget in one of the most difficult times Australia has ever faced. Now on the other matter, well, we’re very aware of the influence the Chinese Government seeks to have. So any suggestion that China, the Chinese Government doesn’t seek to interfere in Australia, – well, we didn’t put that legislation in for no reason. We put it in there to ensure that Australians’ security could be safeguarded from foreign influence in our own country.
JOURNALIST: Just a follow-up there, Prime Minister. Do you believe that it was time to coincide with this election though? Do you believe the announcement was designed to coincide with this election?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, all I’m saying is there is form on foreign interference in Australia. There is. That’s why we and that’s why we introduced laws on it and that’s why we have funded ASIO. That’s why we’ve funded our agencies, our intelligence agencies, to enable us to counteract that. Whether it’s in our universities or our schools or our institutions, it’s important that we counter foreign interference in our country and it was our government that put laws in place to stop it.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, China’s Vice Foreign Minister said your criticism of the Solomon Islands deal amounts to disinformation, defamation, coercion and intimidation and exposes a colonial mentality. What’s your response to this?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Chinese Government would say that, wouldn’t they?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister. Was this measure, was this measure that you’re announcing today ever meant to be in the Budget? And if not, then why did two of your ministers announce it on the floor of Parliament and then had to be changed in Hansard?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it was an error which was acknowledged at the time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I couldn’t quite hear you.
JOURNALIST: Sorry. Is it appropriate for Fiona Meagher, the Daughter of former High Court Judge Ian Callinan was promoted to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal without any interview or process, while Mr Callinan was conducting a review of the process, a view of the organisation? And is it true when Mr Callinan called you, is it true Mr Callinan called you in late 2020, advocating for his daughter to be appointed to a $500K Deputy President role?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’m not aware of the matters that you’re referring to, and I’m not aware of of the call you’re referring to. So I can’t really offer much comment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your Cabinet Minister, Ken Wyatt, has been advocating for a pay rise for politicians. At a time when many Australians are struggling to pay for bills and put food on the table. Is that a sign that your Government is out of touch?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I have to correct you. He is not advocating that. He’s not advocating that. You’re referring to comments that were made, you know, four years ago that have been dragged out, and that is not his view. And four years ago, things were, and these things are set by independent tribunals, as they should be. And it shouldn’t be set by politicians, at all, and aren’t. And so the suggestion that Ken is making those comments at this point in time is simply false.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Labor’s announced a timeframe for when it would hold a Royal Commission into the Robodebt, or Online Compliance Intervention program, saying it would begin consulting on terms of reference immediately if it won the election. It would examine how it was created, the handling of complaints and how much the Scheme ended up costing taxpayers. Aren’t all of these details about the Scheme information, the Government should be only openly providing the public itself. And if so, would the Government conduct any inquiry of its own (inaudible) of the program and its failures?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’ve been numerous inquiries into this matter. And there’s been court matters which we’ve fully cooperated in and and some almost $750 million in reimbursements have been made by the Government and the changes to the Scheme have been put in place. So the problem has been addressed, but any such inquiry, I imagine, would have to start with the process of income management. Sorry, of income assessment, averaging of incomes which was introduced by the Labor Party. I find it quite hypocritical that a Scheme that the Labor Party actually introduced for income averaging in assessing people’s welfare entitlements that they now seek to criticise the Government for. I mean, the Labor Party do this all the time. They just come out and make these assertions. But I do know, there’s, they’re already saying which public servants they want to sack and all of this. They’re getting quite ahead of themselves, the Labor Party. They think this election is done. Not one vote has been cast or counted and the Labor Party already thinks they’re in government. Now I don’t, I’ve never treated the Australian public with such disrespect. This election is a choice. It’s a choice between a government that you know. A government that has taken action to get Australia through one of the most difficult times this country has seen in generations and has a clear plan for the economy, just like we’re seeing right here in Tasmania. I mean, the investments that we’ve announced just in the last couple of days, whether it’s Nyrstar down there in Hobart, whether it was the $20 million we put out yesterday, supporting local manufacturing businesses to be successful in the future. Whether it’s the longer term investments we’re making here in the Marinus project and the Battery of the Nation project, whether it’s the support for the forestry industry here, where I stood with Bridget just a few weeks ago, and the importance of those primary industry jobs here in Tasmania, that’s our economic plan to see a strong economy in Tasmania, and a strong economy right around the country. And the reason we do that, the reason we want such a strong economy is so we can put drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Some 2,900 in new and amended listings and make those medicines more affordable for Australians who need them. So self-funded retirees, families, all of these groups who don’t get the concessional treatment that others rightly get, but they deserve a go too. They deserve to be heard and acknowledged. And what we’re announcing here today is a real acknowledgement that the cost of living pressures are felt right across the board. We’ve taken strong action for the most vulnerable in our community, but there are many others who also deserve the support, particularly when it comes to life saving, life changing medicines.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, faith communities were very disappointed by the failure to pass religious, religious discrimination laws. How committed are you to working with MPs like Bridget Archer to get that passed in the next term, or is it dead in the water?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I’ve been clear and I’ve written to religious leaders around the country. I was devastated that that wasn’t that wasn’t passed, along with faith communities. It was a great disappointment to me. But what I propose to do and have made very clear is I will take it forward, but I’ll be taking it forward as standalone legislation. It will deal with the RDA, and won’t be dealing with other issues. It’ll just be dealing with that issue. And that’s what I intend to do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, voters are facing higher mortgages, higher electricity prices and higher grocery bills on your watch. Regardless of you blaming external factors, can you understand their frustration and do you concede it could cost you on election day?
PRIME MINISTER: I do understand that Australians are facing cost of living pressures. I do understand that there is rising pressure on interest rates, interest rates today at 0.1% historic lows with extraordinary, unconventional, unorthodox lows, I’d have to say. And we do know that the impacts on inflation are coming from well beyond Australia’s shores and some factors, particularly more recently, when it impacts on fruit and vegetable prices when it comes to the recent floods. So I think Australians know what is causing these price effects. But what is what it is, what our response to that is, is to ensure that we can provide that relief and take the steps that we can take to provide relief. That’s what our responsibilities. I know Australians are dealing with these cost of living pressures and that’s why we’re making the announcements that we’re making today. And I know they’re frustrated about cost of living pressures, but they also know. See, I have a great trust and faith in Australians. I know that they’re not going to take what the Labor Party just says. I mean they’re trying to tell pensioners that they’re going to be put on the Cashless Debit Card. Everybody knows that’s a lie. And now they’re trying to say that somehow the impacts of the war in Europe, the pandemic and all of these things aren’t responsible for the price effects we’ve seen. I mean, the Labor Party talks about all these things, but they have no plan to address them. They have no economic plan to do something about it. They say they can lift people’s wages. Well, how are you going to do that? They have no magic pen that makes people’s wages go up any more that they have a magic pen that can change the price of a lettuce. I mean, talking about the problem is not enough, Mr Albanese, having a plan to deal with it is what you need. And that’s what we have. And today we’ve been very clear in adding to our plan about how we are dealing with cost of living pressures. And that plan is very clear, providing immediate support, cutting the fuel tax in half, ensuring we’re delivering direct financial support to the most vulnerable on fixed income support payments from the Government, ensuring Australians can keep $420 more of what they earn through tax relief, by making changes to the safety net on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme so people can get access to cheaper medicines sooner. And finally today, what we’ve announced, cutting $10 off the price of their medicines for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and that can be saving them up to $120 a year. That’s a real plan that’s actually doing something about it, not just talking about it, which is what you always get from Mr Albanese. Thanks very much, everyone.
