Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Medicines Shortages and Other Measures) Bill 2026, Therapeutic Goods (Charges) Amendment Bill 2026
Mr HOLZBERGER (Forde) (18:56): While I never thought that I would be talking about soybeans and sweet potatoes in the context of a bill effectively about medicine shortages, I'll flag that as something that I'll return to later in my speech—as a bit of a page turner, perhaps. Meanwhile, I rise in support of the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Medicines Shortages and Other Measures) Bill 2026 and the Therapeutic Goods (Charges) Amendment Bill 2026.
In doing so, I recognise the really quite incredible work of the Minister for Health and Ageing in leading the government's strategy for health and also the work of the health and social services committee of the caucus which, in many ways, takes the aspirations and the dreams of Labor Party members across the country and of the communities from which those members come.
Ultimately, this piece of legislation sits within Labor's core mission—it sits within Labor's DNA—to provide a quality and universal health system. When you look at the work that has been done through this government and through the Labor Party in general, remembering that it was the Labor Party that created the PBS almost 80 years ago under the prime ministership of Ben Chifley—the work that this Labor government is doing to build on the PBS includes cheaper medicines, bulk-billing, tackling specialist fees and making urgent care clinics a central part of our health system.
It just goes to show that the Labor Party very much believes in universal and quality healthcare, while the Liberal Party, we learned today, is still trying to figure out what exactly Medicare means and still trying to work out a definition of Medicare. It is hardly surprising from a party that was led by Prime Minister John Howard, who believed that Medicare was a rort; by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who tried to kill Medicare—literally by a thousand cuts—by imposing a co-payment on doctor visits; and by Turnbull and Morrison, who tried to throttle Medicare when none of those other things worked by keeping the rebate which was paid to doctors at the same rate in the time that they were in government.
Universal health care very much sits within Labor's mission. While the Labor Party and the labour movement exist to advance the economic interests of working-class Australians, there are some things that you can achieve on the shop floor. Wages and conditions at an enterprise level are the sorts of things that you can achieve on the shop floor, but what you can't achieve on the shop floor is universal and quality health care.
That can only be achieved by having control of chambers and parliaments like this. You need governments and parliaments to make the laws and provide the resources for services such as universal health care. That's why the Labor Party exists.
It exists to take up those things that you can't achieve on the shop floor but are so important to the economic interests of working-class Australians. This legislation is sitting within that general work. 'Universal' and 'quality' are, I think, what Medicare means to us. This bill deals with the quality of our health system.
While medicine shortages have not necessarily been something new to the Australian experience, I think COVID really showed us what it means to be a country at the end of supply chains. Before I got elected to this place, I remember trying to help a friend look for Ozempic. I think the first big shock to our health system and to health consumers was when there was suddenly a massive shortage of Ozempic.
This woman really needed it for diabetes treatment, and she couldn't get it anywhere. I want to give a shout-out to the Pharmacy Guild, who I was able to get a hold of and who did a ring around for us to find a pharmacist who was able to supply Ozempic at the beginning of that crisis. Even though it involved a logistical exercise in getting it delivered from the other side of Brisbane, it did alleviate the worry that my friend had in trying to get something which was really life-changing for her to manage her diabetes.
Medicine shortages are becoming much more acute post COVID. Last September, a constituent came to me, as a member of parliament. She was looking for some help because she couldn't get the hormone replacement treatment Estradot, which is a patch which deals with perimenopause and menopause.
Again, while we were able to help her through the Pharmacy Guild, who provided a solution for that, it did show to me at that real-world level what it means when somebody is having trouble getting the medicine that they need. In preparation for this speech, I was looking at some media and came across a story by the ABC's health reporter Lauren Roberts. She talks about what the shortage of Estradot means.
She really does sum it up well. This story is from May this year, so this is happening right now. Lauren Roberts says: Australian women are cutting their menopause patches in half, travelling interstate to fill scripts and going without amid ongoing supply shortages.
It's an issue Rachel, who didn't want to use her surname for privacy reasons, knows all too well. "Whenever you can't find [your medication], you kind of go into a bit of a mild panic," she said. "It's like, 'Oh, my quality of life is going to tumble, there's nothing [available].'" Over the years, Rachel has 'spent hours calling pharmacies to check what they have on hand before travelling long distances to get the right medication'.
I feel this is a story that all of us as elected members and community representatives come across all too often. It goes on: Pharmacist and nutritionist Sarah Gray, who specialises in perimenopause, said these patches weren't "cosmetic or optional". "They are prescribed to manage hot flushes, sleep disruption, mood instability, cognitive symptoms and overall daily functioning," she said.
"For many women, they are the difference between coping and not coping at work, at home and in leadership roles. "These medications can be life-changing." Lauren Roberts, the journalist, said: In 2023, the local market grew tighter after one brand of HRT patch approved for use in Australia was discontinued, putting an increased demand on those still available.
She goes on: Ada Cheung, an endocrinologist at the University of Melbourne, said it wasn't just Australia experiencing shortages, with the United States and United Kingdom also impacted. Here we get to the bit about soybeans and sweet potatoes. Professor Cheung said the first issue along the supply chain was at the start, with soya beans and sweet potatoes—the raw ingredients used in most patches—in high demand and short supply globally.
Who would have thought that something as basic as those two things could have such profound ramifications? Lauren Roberts goes on to say that there are reports of some patients: 'cutting patches in half, sharing medication, spacing out doses or going without to cope with the scarcity of supply. And in Brisbane, community pharmacist Tahnee Simpson said patients would drive "in search of a unicorn" looking for their preferred brand.' Tahnee Simpson, the pharmacist, said: There may be one box sitting in a far-off pharmacy, a long way away and they will drive for it… And for me, my heart sinks because it also means that I can't provide care to that patient … I'm sure that all of our hearts sink when a constituent comes to us and can't get the life-changing and life-saving medication that they rely on.
By the way, I just thought it was interesting and relevant to talk about perimenopause and menopause because, as I say, this legislation sits in the broader government strategy of universal and quality healthcare. When it comes to perimenopause, the government has introduced a new item number for GPs to conduct menopause and perimenopause assessments on patients.
We've also listed three new menopause hormone treatments for the first time in two decades. These are treatments which are already being used by 150,000 women across Australia. That's potentially 1,000 women in each of our electorates who, at the moment, are spending $580 a year on those menopause hormone treatments.
They will now be getting them at the PBS rate. This legislation, while technical and slightly complex in its nature, sits at the very heart of the Labor Party's mission and this government's mission to make quality healthcare universal. These shortages in medications and in medical products are not new, but they've been exacerbated by COVID and by the supply chain pressure that we feel on all sorts of products all around the world.
And so, while mentioning soybeans and sweet potatoes in a speech on medicine shortages, I suppose it shouldn't be any surprise that I could also mention copper and steel and aluminium, because those three things are also examples of what the Albanese Labor government is doing when it comes to addressing the issues of national sovereignty. By protecting our foundational industries of steel in Whyalla, of copper in Mount Isa and aluminium in Gladstone, we are recognising that for too many years we have become too reliant—and that's probably a nice way to put it—on overseas suppliers to look after us.
Now we know that when the crunch is on we need to look after ourselves, which by the way seems to be a fundamental difference in philosophy between the Labor Party and, certainly, the Liberal Party and One Nation. I'm still not always sure where the National Party, the agrarian socialists, land on this. But when you get an opportunity to drill down into what One Nation stands for, it's no surprise that, when you see who backs her, they are actually a party that are economic rationalism on steroids, neoliberalism on steroids.
So it is only the Labor Party that takes this approach to national sovereignty. Earlier, the member for Swan mentioned the Albanese government's approach to the IV shortage back in 2023. If surgeries weren't being delayed they were being this close to being delayed, and patients who needed—we are not talking about niche products.
When you talk about IV fluid, you're talking about sugar and salt water. Patients' recoveries were being compromised because there was a shortage. It took the Albanese Labor government to invest $20 million—with Baxter, as the member for Swan said—to bring back that sovereign capability and to try and head off those problems in the future.
Of course, it invested in not just Baxter but Moderna—and through the Future Made in Australia package, through funding for locally produced medicines and through the national medicine stockpile. This shows that this government's and this party's great project for what are the Australian values of quality—which sits at the heart of why universal and quality health care is important.
Debate adjourned. Federation Chamber adjourned at 19 : 12