00:00So the announcement is that medicines will be capped at $25 per script if they're on
00:07the PBS from 2026 next year, from the 1st of January, and that is the cheapest that
00:14medicines have been, according to the government, since 2004.
00:18Now this is a cut from the $31.60 that they are at the moment.
00:23It's something that the government says is going to save Australians $200 million a year
00:29and it will cost the Australian taxpayer $690 million over the next four years, and those
00:36details will be made clearer in the budget when it's released on Tuesday.
00:42Labor says this will come into place from next year and the Coalition already has said
00:48that they will match that.
00:50So no matter who wins government, there will be $25 medicines on the PBS from the 1st of
00:57January.
00:58What's the Prime Minister said about these threats from the US pharmaceutical lobby,
01:02Isabel?
01:03Well, he's been very insistent that the pharmaceutical benefit scheme is not up for sale.
01:10What's happened is US lobby groups for the pharmacy industry there have written to the
01:16trade representative in the US, Jamison Greer, who's been doing trade negotiations with Australia
01:21and he has called the PBS egregious.
01:25The reason they don't like it is because, in their view, it devalues American medicines
01:30because the Australian government is paying a set fee for American medicines, doing a
01:36deal with them essentially so that Australians are able to have the benefits that we have.
01:42The US pharmacy groups say that that's not fair and so they are urging Donald Trump to
01:48place reciprocal tariffs on Australia as some sort of punishment.
01:53Both the government and the coalition have been insistent that Donald Trump can't actually
01:58affect the actual pharmaceutical benefit scheme.
02:01We heard from Anthony Albanese on this just a short time ago.
02:05We'll stand our ground.
02:08This is not for sale and is not up for negotiation.
02:12This is a part of the free trade agreement because Labor insisted as a condition of our
02:19support for the free trade agreement.
02:21So the pharmaceutical benefit scheme is a part of who we are as Australians and we will
02:28always stand up for it.
02:30It's not up for negotiation.
02:34The coalition has said the same.
02:36So what is the concern is these potential tariffs that the US has suggested it would
02:42place on pharmaceutical exports from Australia as well as beef exports from Australia and
02:48we are still waiting to hear what the US decides to do with those.
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