The Pharmacy Guild’s annual dinner, held in Parliament House Canberra, featured speeches by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, and the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton.
Addressing the dinner, Mr Butler said he wanted to pay tribute to the work the Guild did, both “in principle and in practice” through negotiations in the Community Pharmacy Agreements to ensure there were good closing-the-gap initiatives so “you can help whatever national effort to genuinely achieve equality and reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians”.
Mr Butler also highlighted the Affordable Medicines Now campaign, thanking the Guild for taking the lead on the issue at a time when many Australians were doing it tough.
He thanked the Guild for its hard work in delivering cheaper medicines to millions of Australians.
“This would have been a good thing to do at any time, even at the best of times, but these are far from the best of times.
“What was really compelling was not just the hip-pocket benefit of your affordable medicines policy; it was the stories that pharmacist after pharmacist told us . . . stories of people coming in with a handful of scripts and asking your members for advice about which ones they didn’t need to fill this month.
“Pharmacist told us that often people would choose to go without the script that might have been much better for their long-term health but didn’t deliver that immediate benefit of pain relief, for example.”
He praised the “the meticulous research you did, the fierce campaigning and the compelling arguments you were delivering” which meant that the policy was adopted.
“Low and middle-income Australians are going to enjoy the first time the PBS has actually seen the prices of medicines reduced,” he told guests at the dinner.
In his speech, Mr Dutton noted the campaign drew a bi-partisan response from politicians.
“On reducing the payment and on gaining affordability and accessibility, that was a no brainer for both sides of politics,” he said.
