Scott Morrison’s $10 election promise to millions of Aussies

Scott Morrison has made a $10 promise to millions of Australians in a pre-election pledge to help ease cost of living pressures.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes cutting the price of medicines on the PBS will help ease cost of living pressures.

If elected, the Coalition will spend $150 million to drop the maximum price of medication to $32.50 from next year, making it $10 cheaper.

Mr Morrison said the measure would help Australians deal with the “additional pressures” and the rising cost of living.

Scott Morrison made the announcement while in Tasmania on Saturday. Picture: Jason Edwards

“I do understand that Australians are facing cost of living pressures. I do understand that there is rising pressure on interest rates,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Tasmania on Saturday.

“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 are impacting the prices Australians are paying every day.”

Mr Morrison expects the “permanent change” to benefit up to 19 million Australians each year, meaning Australians who only take one medication a year could still save $120 annually.

When asked on Saturday whether Labor would be matching the announcement, Senator Katy Gallagher repeatedly hinted her party would “have more to say”.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese later suggested an announcement could be coming on Sunday.

The Coalition pledge was accidentally announced by two ministers as part of the budget last month, but they quickly asked for it to be struck from the official record on Hansard.

The policy would see the maximum price of PBS medicine reduced from $42.50 to $32.50.

Senator Gallagher described it as a “shambles” of an announcement after these two previous mistakes and suggested it was only made to get ahead of Labor’s plans.

“We’ll have more to say about this, and I suspect it’s the fact that we’ll have more to say about this that has focused Mr Morrison’s mind on making the announcement he has today,” she said

“He’s announced it three times now. Twice it’s been abolished after it’s been announced, he’s got wind of something and he’s made another announcement.”

Mr Morrison said it was removed from the Hansard twice, “because it was an error that was acknowledged at the time”.

When asked why this measure is an election promise rather than being included in last month’s budget, the Prime Minister said temporary and immediate measures to tackle the cost of living were put in the budget, while this is a longer-term change.

“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,” he said.

When further pressed on the issue, Mr Morrison said including promises like this in their mid-year statement is a “fairly common way” they have done their budgets.

“Normally we would make an announcement like that later in the year,” he said

‘But we’re going into an election ... so people need to know what we plan to do. So we’re being very upfront.”

The news was welcomed by Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey, who said he commonly comes across people who have to delay, defer or go without their prescribed medicine.

“Essential medicines are something you can’t choose to go without one week or take half the prescribed dose of,” he said.

“What does this does is help our patients paycheck to paycheck at the cash register. So Brad (the owner of the pharmacy where the press conference was held) and I can stop having those awkward conversations about which one (prescribed medication) is less important than the other.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, MP Bridget Archer and Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Twomey described the announcement as a “first” in the pharmaceutical benefits schemes 70-year history.

“This is the only time medicines have gone in a different direction other than up,” he said.

The election promise would cost the federal government $150 million a year.

Originally published as Scott Morrison’s $10 election promise to millions of Aussies