QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh—Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Health and Ageing and Deputy Leader of the House) (15:06): I thank the member for Bennelong. He's interested in medicines as a local member and particularly because he represents that area of Sydney affectionately known as Pill Hill, where so much of Australia's medicines industry is located.

A number of members, I know, were at the Rare Cancers Australia event in the Great Hall earlier today. I thank Christine Cockburn and her team for putting on that event. There were some raw, powerful speeches from four Australians—Sarah, Tom, Bronwyn and Lauren—battling particularly rare types of cancer for which there haven't traditionally been the same treatments available that there are for more common cancers.

I want to thank them for coming to parliament as well. That question is changing—indeed, it's changing this week. One of the reasons for the big increases in survival rates for more common cancers over recent years has been the effectiveness of new treatments, especially immunotherapies which bolster the immune system's ability to kill cancer cells.

In that field, there is no bigger beast than Keytruda, the biggest selling cancer drug on the planet. We've progressively expanded the PBS listings for Keytruda for different cancer types over recent years, but still very big gaps have remained to the point where if you go to an infusion suite in one of our hospitals, there might be two patients sitting next to each other, both receiving a Keytruda infusion, one of whom pays $25 on the PBS and the other of whom is having to remortgage their house to find the $60,000 a year to pay for this treatment simply because of the type of cancer that they are battling.

Well, last week, all of that changed. Keytruda is now available on the PBS for every single cancer type. That follows our decision earlier this year to make the same general pan-tumour listing for the other blockbuster immunotherapy, Opdivo and Yervoy, delivering equity in cancer care for the first time, ensuring both of those patients that I talked about are able to focus on getting better rather than setting up a GoFundMe page to fund the huge cost of these amazing, effective new treatments.

I want to stress that no other country has done this. This is a world first. Because of what the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee has been able to do with these two blockbusters, I am very confident that other immunotherapies will now make the same application to cover all cancer types, including these rare cancers that have too often gone untreated, delivering even more equity in cancer care.

That's what the PBS is all about: affordable medicines—the best medicines on the planet—for all Australians. The SPEAKER: I call the Prime Minister. The member for Riverina will resume his seat.

Mr Albanese: He's a good fella. Mr McCormack interjecting— Mr Albanese: If it is about Grayndler they'll get an extra one, but I'm told it's not. Mr McCormack interjecting— Mr Albanese: I'm quite happy to tell my electorate what a good local member they have!

Mr Chester interjecting— The SPEAKER: No. Resume your seat. Mr Albanese: I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.