The Albanese Labor Government’s administration of the $19.5 billion life-saving Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS) has been found to be only “partly effective”.
A report by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) into the PBS, which subsidises the cost of medicines for Australians, identified multiple administrative “deficiencies”, including a failure by the Department of Health and Aged Care to consider “broader strategic risks” to the PBS and to address multiple governance blind spots.
Most concerningly, the ANAO found that Health has not conducted an analysis of stakeholder engagement needs or developed an overarching stakeholder engagement plan.
The ANAO also noted that between August 2022 and June 2024, Services Australia failed to consistently meet its performance measures, with the agency blaming “staff shortages, claim backlogs and needing to focus on other priorities.”
Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care Anne Ruston said the ANAO report confirms what we already know, that Labor has little regard for the PBS and the life-saving and life-changing medicines it delivers.
“It is frankly staggering against the backdrop of the HTA Review that the Department of Health and Aged Care and the Minister have failed when it comes to stakeholder engagement, showing borderline contempt for medicine companies and patients,” Senator Ruston said.
“This is particularly concerning given the Albanese Labor Government’s recent decision to cap the number of new medicines that can be considered for listing on the PBS, delaying access for patients whose lives could depend on them.
“To make matters worse, the Minister gave the green light to the Department to delay informing stakeholders of this decision for a number of weeks.”
The Coalition has a strong record on ensuring patients have affordable access to potentially life-saving or life-changing new medicines through the PBS. When last in Government, the Coalition made more than 2,900 new or amended listings of medicines on the PBS, at an overall investment of around $16.5 billion - directly benefiting Australians.
In comparison, when Labor was last in government, they stopped listing new medicines on the PBS because they couldn’t manage money. Now, history appears to be repeating itself with Labor’s arbitrary cap on considering new PBS medicine listings.
Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy Paul Fletcher said Labor’s mismanagement had undermined the effectiveness of the life-saving PBS.
“This report is yet another example of why Labor can’t be trusted to deliver the services Australians rely on,” Mr Fletcher said.
“In a remarkable finding, the ANAO has confirmed that for 13 out of 23 months, Services Australia failed to process written authority requests from health professionals within the required timeframe and found that “the timeliness of authority approvals impacts doctors and other PBS prescribers”.
“Incredibly, Services Australia have thrown their own Minister under the bus, blaming these processing failures on Bill Shorten’s self-made claims backlog and his woeful workforce management.
“This deeply concerning report confirms that, as a direct result of Labor’s maladministration, serious work is required to restore the integrity of Australia’s social security safety net so that Australians can access the medicines they need.”
ENDS
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