$10 prescription price cut dumped by Morrison Government, ministers reveal

Two senior ministers have revealed a planned $10 cut in the price of prescription medicine was dropped by the Government.

Exclusive: A plan to slash the price of medicine by $10 a script in this week’s budget was abandoned by the Morrison government at the last minute, an embarrassing parliamentary stuff up has revealed.

Financial Services Minister Jane Hume and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar spilled the beans in their speeches to Parliament on Wednesday.

In her speech introducing the budget bills tabled in the Senate, Senator Hume announced that the government would “reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general patient charge by $10, from the current amount of $42.50 to the new amount of $32.50 commencing on 1 May 2022”.

“This means that over 3 million Australians will pay less for their medicines each year, with close to 17 million scripts costing patients less,” the speech tabled in the Senate said.

Financial Services Minister Senator Jane Hume. Picture: Getty Images

This measure was, in fact, not included in the budget and News Corp has been told she was mistakenly reading an out-of-date speech.

A video recording of the proceedings of parliament shows Mr Sukkar also mentioned the $10 cut in the price of scripts.

However, the minister was quicker to realise his mistake and he had Hansard, the official written record of parliamentary proceedings, altered to remove the comments.

A spokesman for Senator Hume and Mr Sukkar said: “The information provided in the initial Hansard relating to the reading of the Treasury Law Amendment (Cost of Living Support Other Measures) Bill 2022 was not correct and has since been corrected”.

It is unlikely the speeches will mean the $10 cut accidentally becomes law.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has been campaigning to have the cost of scripts halved to around $20, claiming the cost for general patients is now so high many people can’t afford to have their prescriptions filled.

The government did make a much smaller cut to prescription prices in the budget lowering by 12 the number of scripts people need to pay for before the safety net kicks in lowering their price.

This measure is expected to benefit 2.4 million people and save then around $80 a year.

The Guild’s national president, Professor Trent Twomey, said: “Clearly the government acknowledges the reality that many Australians who are struggling from paycheck to paycheck to afford their medicines cannot wait until they are $1450 out-of-pocket to reach the safety,” he said.

“We agreed with the government that a $10 co-payment would not go far enough, as it helps only 3 per cent of Australians.”

Prof Twomey added: “We believe that a larger reduction in the co-payment is needed to help the 24 per cent of people struggling to afford their prescriptions and 14 per cent who have been forced to skip them entirely.”

Originally published as $10 prescription price cut dumped by Morrison Government, ministers reveal