Mr Mark BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Health and Aged Care and Deputy Leader of the House) (15:17):

I thank the member for Hunter for his question, because, like everyone on this side of the House, he has no higher priority than helping his community with the cost of living by earning more and by keeping more of what they earn. I'm pleased to say that last year healthcare workers saw their wages rise by an average of 5½ per cent—well over double what they were seeing under those opposite. They'll get to keep more of that money when every single one of them receives a tax cut on 1 July—like a third-year RN in the member's electorate working at the Cessnock Hospital who will get a tax cut of more than $1,600, or double what they would have got under the old plan.

The member for Hunter also promised cheaper medicines to his community, and we have delivered on that as well, with lower annual medicine bills for millions of pensioners and the biggest cut to the price of medicines last year in the 75-year history of the PBS. But we've also been determined to allow hundreds and hundreds of common medicines for ongoing health conditions to be supplied for 60 days at the cost of a single script, saving up to six million patients time and even more money.

It's not a new idea. Most other countries we compare ourselves to already do it, and the medicines experts advised the former government to do it more than five years ago. But they rejected the advice, and, instead, millions of patients have paid hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars more for their medicines than they should have done. Well, we did accept the advice. Three weeks ago I added 94 more medicines to that 60-day script list, including menopause medicines used by about 600,000 Australian women, diabetes medicines used by well over a million Australian patients and medicines used by tens and tens of thousands of breast cancer survivors to prevent a recurrence of their cancer, just to name a few. And remember, the opposition voted against all of this. It's perhaps unsurprising given it's an opposition led by a man who, as health minister, actually tried to jack up the price of medicines, not bring them down, in his first budget.

I want to thank the member for Hunter for his support and commitment to cheaper medicines. He has also been a fierce advocate for a strong community pharmacy sector in the Hunter Valley. I know that he's delighted that we have reached a deal to invest up to an additional $3 billion to deliver cheaper medicines, to deliver better patient outcomes and to create a strong community pharmacy sector. Those opposite pretended you could only have one or the other, that you could only have cheaper medicines or a strong pharmacy sector, but our negotiations have delivered both. That's what a strong, responsible government does.