Category: Australian News

Cheaper medicine is on the way for more than 500,000 patients from October 1, with price reductions for common scripts and new medicines added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), in some cases saving over $100,000 per patient.
Medicines to treat lung cancer, lymphoblastic and acute leukaemia, and nausea associated with chemotherapy will now be available to patients on the PBS from tomorrow for just $40.30 per script, or $6.50 with a concession card.
A further $390 million in mandated price reductions across 175 medicine brands will also flow through to patients from tomorrow, making medicines more affordable.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Coalition would continue to list medicine on the PBS as quickly as possible.
“Our strong budget management means we can give Australian patients with access to life-saving and life-changing medicines quicker than ever before, without raising taxes,” the Prime Minister said.
“This stands in stark contrast to Labor whose failed budget management drove the budget into deep deficit, forcing them to stop listing lifesaving and life changing medicines.”
“From tomorrow, some of our most unwell Australians, many battling cancer, will receive a significant boost in the fight for their health.”
The new or extending PBS listings from tomorrow include:

• Tecentriq® and Avastin®,will be extended on the PBS to include first line treatment of patients with stage IV metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Without PBS subsidy it would cost patients more than $11,400 per script (around 16 scripts per course of treatment); or more than $189,100 per course of treatment. An average of 755 patients per year (for six years) could benefit from this listing.
• Besponsa®,will be extended on the PBS to include patients with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome positive (B-CELL precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia). Without PBS subsidy, patients would pay more than $44,500 per script (around 3 scripts per course of treatment); or more than $122,900 per course of treatment without subsidised access through the PBS. An average of 16 patients per year (for six years) could benefit from this listing.
• Blincyto®,will be extended on the PBS to include patients with relapsed or refractory Philadelphia chromosome positive (B-CELL precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia). Without PBS subsidy, patients would pay more than more than $74,900 per script (around 2 scripts per course of treatment); or more than $122,900 per course of treatment. An average of 16 patients per year (for six years) could benefit from this listing.
• Apotex®, will be made available through the PBS for the treatment of patients with Nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Without PBS subsidy, patients would pay more than $80 per script (around 1 script per course of treatment). In 2018, 7,269 patients accessed a comparable treatment for this condition.

Minister for Health Greg Hunt said every six months, prices on a range of PBS medicines are also reduced as a result of the Government’s Price Disclosure Policy.
“With these price reductions, a trip to the pharmacist will be cheaper for thousands of Australians, and more life-saving drugs can be listed on the PBS,” Minister Hunt said.
Fifteen common medicines – sold as 175 medicine brands will be cheaper for general (non-concessional) patients, and these include:

• Pregabalin: around 208,000 patients per year who have seizures or nerve pain will now pay $28.27 per script for 75 mg capsules, a saving of up to $5.11 per script
• Ezetimibe: around 60,000 patients per year with high cholesterol levels will now pay $33.86 per script for 10 mg tablets, a saving of up to $6.44 per script
• Ezetimibe with Simvastatin: about 245,000 patients with high cholesterol levels will now pay $37.77 per script for 10 mg tablets, a saving of up to $2.53 per script.

Every medicine was recommended to the PBS by the independent expert Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. By law the Federal Government cannot list a new medicine without a positive recommendation from the PBAC.
The Government’s commitment to ensuring that Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, is rock solid. This includes continuing to cut the cost of medicines for patients through the PBS safety net.
From 1 January 2020 the threshold to receive free or further discounted medicines through the PBS will be lowered by 12 scripts for pensioners and concession card holders and the equivalent of 2 scripts for non-concession card holders.
Since 2013, the Morrison Government has listed over 2,100 new or amended items on the PBS.
This represents an average of around 31 listings per month – or one each day – at an overall cost of around $10.6 billion.
Our plan for a strong economy continues to deliver record funding for essential health services that saves lives.

The South Australian Government has ignored the most damning elements of the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission in its response finally released yesterday, the Greens say.
“After nine months, the South Australian Government’s response to the SA Royal Commission is a complete cop-out,” Greens Spokesperson for Water and Senator for SA, Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“This response from the SA Water Minister says very little and shows a complete disregard for the scientific warnings over the health of the River.
“Minister Spiers has ignored the biggest problem facing the management of the Murray-Darling, that being the health of river has been compromised by political and corporate interests.
“Too much water is still being taken out of the river system for irrigation and not enough has been returned as the science requires to keep it alive.
“The Minister’s rejection of water buy backs, in favour of spending public money on bogus ‘efficiency’ and ‘infrastructure’ projects – even for the 450GL promised to SA – shows he has rejected the key recommendations of both the SA Royal Commission and the Productivity Commission.
“The Minister has backed Barnaby Joyce, over SA and the River. Without reinstating the water buy-backs, scrapped by Mr Joyce, SA will never get the water and the River will not survive.
“It seems the SA Government has drunk the Federal Government’s kool-aid when it comes to what actually needs to be done to save the River and the communities that depends on it.
“This dereliction of duty to protect the River and South Australians who rely on it is shameful and only adds weight to the case for a Federal Royal Commission to hold all those responsible for killing the Murray-Darling to account.”

Farmers and their communities will have access to more support with the Coalition Government announcing it will provide more funding, cut red tape and increase services.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a new support package will deliver nearly $100 million to drought-hit communities, which is on top of more than $7 billion in drought support funding already provided by the Government.
“Supporting drought affected communities remains our Government’s most urgent priority,” the Prime Minister said.
“I know that things are only getting harder for many farmers and rural communities, and that’s why we are taking further action and providing even more support.
“We’ve been in constant contact with farmers and businesses, and we’re using their feedback to keep improving our response.
“As I’ve said before, this isn’t set and forget. We need to keep listening and keep taking action.
“We know we can’t make it rain, but we must keep finding ways to do everything we can to make life just a bit easier and remove some of the burden. That’s why our Government is providing more money to help people with bills, more money for counselling and more money to local councils.
“We’ve got to get more cash into these communities and cut more red tape, making it easier to access support.
“I will do everything in my power to ease the burden on farmers and their communities. That’s our Government’s promise.”
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the package of measures would provide an immediate economic stimulus at the local level as well as employment for people whose work has been affected by drought.
“We are delivering $33.42 million to resume the Drought Community Support Initiative, which will deliver up to $3000 to eligible farming households experiencing hardship due to drought,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“And we are providing a $13 million extension to the Drought Community Programme to deliver support at the local government level where it counts.
“Thirteen Local Government Areas will be provided up to $1 million for local infrastructure and drought relief products.”
Minister for Agriculture, Senator Bridget McKenzie, said targeted relief followed careful assessment of the current challenges farmers were facing.
“We know that FHA is a vital hand-up for farmers in times of need—but the Independent Review of Farm Household Allowance told us it could be improved,” Minister McKenzie said.
“Farming families have told me that the FHA program does not currently treat them as business owners and places a real burden on farmers already doing it tough. This was reflected in the review.
“Today we are announcing a radical simplification of the FHA application process and key settings.
“We will remove the requirement for business income reconciliation, change the time limit on payment from four years in total to four out of every ten years, simplify the assets test, recognise agistment as being part of primary production income, and redesign the application process. For the first time, couples will be able to apply for the payment using just one application.
“These changes will make FHA quicker and easier to access, better reflect the nature of farm businesses, and to acknowledge that farmers may experience more than one period of hardship in their lifetime.
“Some of these changes will require amendments to legislation, but through Centrelink we will implement as many of the changes to the application process immediately.”
Minister McKenzie also announced today an injection of $740,000 of contingency funding to five Rural Financial Counselling Service providers who are experiencing pressure from increased demand for their services.
Minister for Drought David Littleproud said the Coalition Government was delivering a comprehensive suite of support measures to farmers in hardship.
“This shows our commitment to stay flexible and respond as needed,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Today’s announcement further strengthens our drought response which includes concessional loans, farm management deposits, tax breaks, and mental health support.
“The government is already providing more than $7 billion in assistance and concessional loans to support those affected by drought.”
“This shows the Coalition Government’s commitment and belief in hard working farming families.”

Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi and Greens Spokesperson for Women, Senator Larissa Waters, have welcomed the decriminalisation of abortion in New South Wales.
Senator Faruqi said:
“This is an absolutely incredible moment and I am escstatic that, after over a century, abortion is out of the Crimes Act.
This is a victory for women who for too long have been denied their bodily autonomy as the law considered them criminals for exercising their reproductive rights. It is a credit to the community and campaigners for their work in demanding change to end patriarchal laws.
“I am so proud of the role the Greens have played in progressing this reform. Two years ago, my bill to decriminalise abortion was debated and the campaign has continued. Now we must fight for expanded access to abortion for all women across the state”.
Senator Waters said:
“History has been made with abortion finally decriminalised in NSW today.
“Congratulations to all the women, pro-choice advocates, feminist activists, my Greens colleagues and everyone who has fought long and hard for this momentous change helping women make better, safer decisions about their body.
“Decriminalisation of abortion is a significant first step, now need to make abortion affordable and accessible for all women across Australia, especially in regional areas. Access to abortion is part of every woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.”

Greens Spokesperson for Housing, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to a new Productivity Commission report showing that two thirds of low income renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent, the commonly used benchmark for identifying rental stress. Half of those remain ‘stuck’ in stress four years on.
Senator Faruqi has called for the Federal Government to review and increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
Senator Faruqi said:
“When even the Productivity Commission concludes that rent assistance hasn’t kept up with rising rents, you know we have a problem. The Federal Government needs to step in and commit to increasing rent assistance.
“It is unacceptable that so many people already on low incomes are falling into financial stress just to put a roof over their head. Everyone has the right to a safe, secure and permanent home.
“We know the situation is getting worse. We need urgent interventions, coupled with significant financial resources and reform of the housing system, or more and more people will be without a home.
“The Productivity Commission has also pointed out wide disparities around the country in conditions for renters. That’s why the Greens have consistently called for a national standard to protect renters”, she concluded.

A popular genre of computer game allows players to design and create civilisations from the ground up.
Players build roads, water supplies and industrial precincts. As their cities grow, they attract workers whose taxes fund further building, allowing the player to build wealth, raise armies and conquer the world.
The heart of these games is planning. Players have to make sure their civilisations have the infrastructure necessary to sustain development.
High speed rail down the east coast would completely transform the economies of the regional cities along its route, as it has done in Europe.CREDIT:RAIL EUROPE
If they skimp on roads and water supplies, for example, community sentiment goes sour, residents leave, the civilisation collapses and the player has to start all over again.
Of course, in the real world, it’s not that simple. We can’t just start the game again if we get it wrong.
That’s why it is critical governments ensure that they respond to population growth with commensurate infrastructure investment or risk real damage to our quality of life.
The simple lesson from those computer games is that government must invest adequately to meet the demands of growth with the investment required to deal with its effects.
The current federal government is failing in this task.
Over the five years to 2018, total annual infrastructure investment in this country was down by 17 per cent compared with average levels during the period of the former Labor government.
In the same period, the national population, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, increased by 1.5 million, or 6.5 per cent.
The outcomes of this under-investment are manifest across our big cities, most notably with traffic congestion.
According to the recently released Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, the average daily commuting time for Sydney workers climbed from 61 minutes in 2002 to 71 minutes in 2017.
It is a tragedy that traffic congestion means many Australian workers spend more time driving to and from work each day than they spend at home with their children.
One of the first decisions of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government was the cancellation of all federal investment in public transport projects that were not already under construction.
Tony Abbott set out the reason for this approach in his book, Battlelines.
“Mostly, there just aren’t enough people wanting to go from a particular place to a particular destination at a particular time to justify any vehicle larger than a car and cars need roads,” he said.
The cuts and delays to urban rail projects has had an ongoing negative impact. Australians are paying by having to waste more time stuck in traffic.
Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison changed the rhetoric on public transport, but they have failed to restore Mr Abbott’s cuts, instead leaving the heavy lifting to states.
While the government announced an Urban Congestion Fund in its May 2018 Budget, not a single project has begun.
Indeed, only about 30 per cent of all money allocated to rail and road investment in the 2019 Budget will be invested within the next four years.
The government should bring some of this investment forward. In Sydney, it could speed up work on the Western Sydney Rail line and also get behind the proposed Western Metro to Parramatta and beyond.
This investment would also satisfy the Reserve Bank’s ongoing calls for increased infrastructure investment to stimulate the economy, creating jobs and economic activity in the short term, while boosting productivity over the medium to long term.
Infrastructure investment as an essential component of economic and social policy.
It’s about giving Australians the services they are paying for through their taxes, but also driving economic growth that will benefit their children and grandchildren.
It can also boost regional development.
High speed rail down the east coast would completely transform the economies of the regional cities along its route.
It would make regional cities more attractive as places to set up new enterprises and create new jobs, which would take pressure off the capital cities.
Anthony Albanese

Greens Spokesperson for Animal Welfare, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has slammed the resumption of the live export of sheep to the Middle East.
Senator Faruqi said:
“The resumption of live exports to the Middle East, especially while temperatures are so hot shows the Government is just paying lip service to animal welfare.
“It is going to be over forty degrees in Kuwait over the next few weeks, which means thousands of sheep will continue to suffer cruel heat stress. We are quite literally putting these poor animals into the furnace of the Middle East heat for profit.
“Whether it is heat stress, overcrowding or spending weeks standing in their own filth, animals on live export ships suffer immensely. It’s time to end live exports once and for all,” she concluded.

Greens spokesperson for the climate crisis, Adam Bandt MP, has warned that the United Nations Climate Summit has made it abundantly clear that even if global Paris pledges are met, it won’t be enough to avoid catastrophic global warming.
“This summit made it crystal clear that even if Australia meets its Paris commitments, that won’t be enough,” said Mr Bandt.
“The world’s Paris pledges, including Australia’s, have us on track for a catastrophic 3.4 degrees of global warming.
“Scientists at the summit say we need to a least triple current Paris pledges to stay below 2 degrees, but instead Scott Morrison is lifting pollution. Scott Morrison is now a direct threat to life.
“It’s great to pull plastics out of the sea, but the biggest threat to our oceans is climate change and Scott Morrison is making global warming worse.”
“A true leader would front up to the UN Climate Summit, and explain why they’re desperately trying to open new coal mines in the middle of a climate emergency,” said Greens leader Richard Di Natale.
“Instead, Scott Morrison is too busy hanging out with his fellow climate denier Donald Trump and Australia’s richest coal baron – while unashamedly boasting that he shares many of the same backwards and views as his host.
“In an attempt to deflect blame for Australia’s carbon exports he’s urging China to reduce their use of fossil fuels – at the same time his Resources Minister is trying to flog off ever more coal to India. By seeking to ignore reality, he’s clearly found a mentor in the most dangerous US President in history.”

By skipping the United Nations Climate Summit to attend the opening of a box factory owned by a billionaire donor to the Liberal Party with President Trump, Scott Morrison is showing just how out of touch he is with the millions of Australians demanding genuine action on climate change, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.
“Millions of people are taking to the streets to demand that our political leaders take serious action on climate change. But instead of listening to their voices and attending a landmark UN Climate Summit today, Scott Morrison has chosen to open a box factory in Ohio owned by a billionaire political donor to the Liberal Party,” said Di Natale.
”We are in a climate emergency and yet the Prime Minister is more interested in rewarding his donors than action to save the planet. Unless Scott Morrison is expecting to find his Government’s missing climate change policy in one of those cardboard boxes, he should be at the United Nations working with other world leaders on a genuine solution to the climate crisis.”
“This weekend, millions of people around the world took to the streets to demand greater action to tackle the climate crisis, yet Scott Morrison refuses to even show his face at the UN Emergency Climate Summit, taking his climate denialism to new and increasingly destructive heights,” said Greens Climate Change Spokesperson Adam Bandt MP.
“Scientists from around the world have a very simple message: we must triple our climate ambition to have any hope of avoiding catastrophic, runaway global warming. It’s time for Scott Morrison to listen to the scientists, listen to the strikers and plan for a phase-out of fossil fuels.”