by 26/08/2025
It is already a great system, but we can do better. This bill reduces the cap down to 25. Now, 31.60 to 95 a month. Under this new cap, it drops to 25 of savings every single month. Over a year, that's more than 230 you could put towards your electricity bill, your rego or your groceries, or just having a bit of breathing space. And that's just for one person. Across the country, this adds up to more than 6.60 really does make a big difference. That's what a real difference looks like.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">Think about it this way. This is a 20 per cent cut to the maximum cost of a PBS medicine. We all know what happens when there's a 20 per cent off sale at the shops; I know my wife does. Try finding a park for the Boxing Day sales. People will battle traffic, wait in lines and fight over car spots to save 20 per cent on clothes and TVs. Unlike the Boxing Day sales, this is not just a one day special. This is a permanent 20 per cent saving on something that you actually need-your health. In some ways, this is the closest thing to time travel we can give Australians.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">The last time PBS medicines cost no more than 42.50 to 42 per script. That added up to 30 per script, Henry's monthly bill fell to 75 every month or 25 cap comes in, Henry will save even more. Who knows-he might even be at the start line of a marathon before long.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">Let me bring this home to the Hunter. We have families in Cessnock who are already making tough choices about which bills to pay first. We have pensioners in Kurri Kurri who are stretching every dollar of their fortnightly pay. We have young families in Singo juggling mortgage repayments and childcare costs. And across Lake Macquarie, in Morisset and Toronto, I meet people every week who tell me the cost of medication is one of their biggest worries.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">When the price of a script drops from 25 it will be a genuine relief for these families. It means a mum in Dora Creek can afford both her asthma inhaler and her kids' new school shoes. It means a retiree in Wyee doesn't have to skip blood pressure medication to keep the lights on. It means a young tradie in Branxton can pay for the pain meds he needs to keep turning up on the tools every day of the week.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">This is not abstract. This is not numbers on a page. This is real money in the hands of real people in our communities, and it makes a massive difference. But we have not stopped there. We have introduced 60-day prescriptions, cutting the number of trips to the pharmacy in half for people with chronic conditions. That saves money and, very importantly, that saves time, because we are all time-poor as well; we all know that. That's why that is so important. We have frozen the cost of PBS medicines so that co-payments will not rise with inflation. This is the first time that that has happened in 25 years. We have delivered more free and cheaper medicines sooner. We have reduced by 25 per cent the number of scripts concessional parents needs to fill before the safety net kicks in. We have locked in a freeze on concession medicines costs so pensioners and concession card holders will not pay more than 689 million investment from our government-an investment that goes directly into the lives and the pockets of ordinary Australians.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px;">It is important to note that this bill also protects discounting pharmacies that currently offer discounts. They will still be able to do that even with the new 25 for a PBS script. 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