I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of land on which we're meeting, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging.
And I thank Trent for the introduction and for the invite to be with you here today with my Minister, Mark Butler, the magnificent Minister for Health, who is doing so much, not just in pharmacy, but about strengthening Medicare, strengthening our hospital system, and putting health at the centre of our agenda, not just for this term, but for future terms in government as well.
It is healthcare that brought me in the politics, why I'm here today.
My mum was an invalid pensioner and that experience in life is what educated me about the importance of healthcare, including the relationship that she had with her pharmacist in Ross Street, Glebe, who as a young boy, certainly, I remember when Mum was unable to get out of the house, we would have deliveries from the chemist.
Not just in terms of pharmaceuticals, but other things that were needed as well.
It's a part of the relationship that I know that you have with the people who you serve.
And I use that term deliberately.
Because, from my experience, your local GP, your local pharmacist, are the two areas that really impact your quality of life and your interaction with your local community.
Which is why I have respect for all of you here today, and why I have brought that personal experience, myself, into the policy deliberations that we've had and the engagement that I've had with the Pharmacy Guild and with individuals as well.
So, it is indeed my great pleasure to be with you here today, and as we reach for the better future that I want for Australia, nothing is more important than strengthening our health system.
There's always room for improvement, and of course, there are challenges to overcome, but our health system is the envy of the world, and we need to defend it and protect it.
It is a system in which you play an absolutely vital and central role.
Medicare is the strong foundation on which our health system is so proudly built.
Since it was launched by the Hawke Government back in 1984, that patriotic piece of green and gold plastic, or these days on your phone, is something that is a proud part of our Australian identity.
Medicare is one of the most meaningful expressions of that most Australian of sayings - the fair go - that we have, and that is why my Government will always work to protect it and enhance it.
It is why our Government has made the biggest investment in Medicare since its creation, expanding bulk billing incentives to all Australians to help more Australians see a GP for free.
In the last Budget, of course, we tripled the bulk billing incentive, and that resulted in 90 per cent of concession card holders being able to see their local GDP for free, being bulk billed.
Now, we know because that worked, that the extension that we've put in place and the announcement I made in Launceston just a few weeks ago, an $8.5 billion dollar commitment to triple the bulk billing incentive, not just for the 11 million concession card holders, but all 27 million Australians, will be effective.
Will make a difference.
And that is why Medicare, a great Australian achievement, is something that we will continue to take pride in as Australians.
We can also take great pride in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Like Medicare, it has become part of the Australian story.
And like Medicare, the arrival was met with fair bit of resistance.
In the 1940s the Curtin and Chifley Labor Governments faced two High Court challenges, two referendums - bit of a flavour of the month at the moment - and significant opportunism and political opposition from the then Opposition.
Universal and affordable access to medicines through the PBS was an idea that survived all of that opposition to become one of Australia's truest pillars of strength.
It doesn't mean that it hasn't been under attack, and the last time Labor lost government, of course, the incoming Government tried to introduce an increase in the PBS, and indeed introduce legislation and increase the costs at the same time as they were trying to introduce the GP tax and a tax on visiting an emergency department.
But they were, of course, defeated.
What that says is that despite its success, we should not take the PBS for granted, and we are always awake to the threats to the PBS that are here, both domestically, but also from overseas.
I said this morning in a couple of those interviews, sitting on the M1, that I want to represent the people who are your customers - Australians.
Not represent big pharma.
It's not surprising that there is a push and some opposition to the PBS, but let me be very clear and explicit, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is not for sale.
Under Labor, under my leadership, it is not and will never be the subject of negotiation.
It is a core part of who we are as Australians, and we will proudly defend it.
And like Medicare, it is a monument to the fairness at the heart of Australian life.
And we don't negotiate our values.
Simple as that.
We do these things because they improve the lives of Australians.
We do it because they're essential ingredients in the better future we're building for Australia, and we're building it together with you, the pharmacists of Australia who are at the heart of the communities that you serve.
Because you're on the front line of healthcare in this country,
It is you that Australians see when they pick up the cheaper medicines that have become available under this Government.
And of course, at the last election, I went to that election promising as Prime Minister to reduce the cost of medicines, from $42.50 down to $30.
These cheaper medicines have reduced cost of living pressures for so many people.
These cheaper medicines have made it easier for Australians to look after their health.
This has been a priority of the Government that I've been privileged to lead.
Again and again, we've made medicines cheaper and delivered important cost of living relief that puts down pressure on inflation, and that's included the additional listings that have been there on the PBS.
And in some cases, I must say, when the Health Minister said to me that the listing of some contraceptives was the first new listing in 30 years, I said "that can't possibly be right, are we sure?"
But you bet it was.
But making a difference to medicines that make a difference to people's lives has been important.
That's also, the introduction last year, of 60 day prescriptions, an important and growing part of my Government's cheaper medicine reforms.
As each phase of medicines become eligible, millions of Australians with an ongoing health condition are getting a bit more help with their cost of living.
In January this year, for the first time in over 25 years, the price of medicines didn't rise with inflation for all Australians because of the changes that we put in place as part of the pharmacy agreement.
Pensioners and concession car holders will continue to benefit from the freeze - just $7.70 -to the cost of their PBS medicines until 2030.
And of course, all of this has been delivered through the stability and strength of the pharmacy sector.
Stability and strength secured by the eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, an agreement that we managed to reach before time.
We didn't wait for the last minute.
We negotiated in good faith an agreement that delivered a $3 billion funding boost and a total of more than $26 billion in funding over the life of the eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement.
We're investing in a stronger pharmacy sector, and we're investing in cheaper medicines.
And I want to pay tribute to the Guild on this factor as well.
I see - lots of people make representations to me as Prime Minister, it's part of the job.
And of course, you always back self-interest, as Paul Keating once said.
One of the things about the pharmacy sector, about your sector, is that the representations you've made are about your sector and your success as businesses.
But importantly, as well, it's about others.
It's about others.
So, the campaigns and the support that you have run in support of cheaper medicines is actually not really about you.
It's about the people you serve, the people you care about.
So, I'm very pleased - this is an appropriate forum to announce - that from the 1 January 2026 the costs of medicines will be cut yet again.
For every single Australian with a Medicare card who isn't on a concession card, the maximum amount they'll pay for a PBS prescription is just $25.
So in a period of just three years, from 2023 to 2026, instead of it being $42.50 and being indexed over and over and over again, that cost will have gone from $42.50 or more because there would have been indexation, down to just $25.
The same price that it was in 2004, more than 20 years ago.
This measure will save Australians over $200 million a year.
The reform will make PBS scripts cheaper than any time in the last two decades, and today's announcement will add to the more than $1.3 billion that Australians have already saved from cheaper medicines since we came to government.
Cheaper medicines policies working together to provide cost of living relief and they will be included in next week's Budget.
It adds to the list of cost of living relief measures that are carefully designed to assist people, but importantly as well, they'll put down the pressure on inflation.
So they'll help our economy as well.
The cost of living measures will make a difference.
We have inherited a system where medicines were $42.50 and to be indexed into the future.
We've turned that into $25.
But we've designed cost of living relief under these difficult global inflation times - to every single one of the measures - whether it be Cheaper Medicines, Cheaper Child Care, Energy Bill Relief, tax cuts for all Australians, not just some. Free TAFE.
They've all been designed to put that downward pressure on inflation.
So the inflation, which had a six in front when we came to office, is now in the lower half of the band that the RBA aims for at 2.4 per cent, and is falling.
Making a difference to the economy, making a difference to families, making a difference to pharmacists, as well.
And I want to make this point, because I know firsthand from speaking to you the job of pharmacists will be made that little bit easier by this change.
We know from experience that too many people will make a decision to go without medicine because they can't afford it.
So, they'll come into one of your pharmacies and say, "I've got these couple of scripts - which is more important, which is more important? Which can't I go without?"
Now, that's not great.
In Australia, we can do better than that.
And reducing the cost of medicines will assist those customers of yours, but will also assist you, because you shouldn't be in that situation of having to give that advice or have those difficult conversations which people are in.
We want people who need medicines to get them.
We want them to stay healthy, and you have an important role to play in that, and today's announcement will assist that to occur.
You are very much sources of wisdom, knowledge, advice and guidance in what is one of the most profoundly personal aspects of any human being's life - their health.
I know the community pharmacy across the road from my Electorate Office has - in a very multicultural area - it has a Vietnamese speaker, a Chinese speaker, a Greek speaker, an Arabic speaker, and for them, it's a connection.
It is constantly crowded in at that - it's Blooms, give them a shout out - Blooms Pharmacy in Marrickville Road.
Whether that, or a wonderful Adele that at Roselle, who sees people from, particularly from the Housing Department community there.
I know the important role that you play.
You do so much to help make our vision of a better health system for Australians a daily reality, and that's why it's vital that we work together.
And as Trent said, time to time there'll be negotiations and argy bargy - that's fine.
We want strong advocates, but we've been managed to get outcomes that are rather extraordinary in just this term.
As long as we are working towards the same thing, we're a bit like two different fuels that get pumped into the engine of the rocket.
A bit of volatility.
But when we get the mix right, we have lift off.
And today we have lift off.
Our destination - and I know yours as well - is doing what's right for Australians, having their back.
And together, we're working in the knowledge that when we lift the health of Australians, we linked our entire nation.
That's why we've supported your efforts to deliver more primary health services.
Last year, the Commonwealth started fairly funding pharmacists to give flu shots and shingles vaccines and every other vaccine on our national immunisation program to Australians free of charge.
Last year was also when we signed a new five-year agreement together, that agreement that made such a difference, but also increasing the number of free medicine Webster packs pharmacies can deliver by 50 per cent.
All of this is making a positive difference.
So, I thank you.
I want to also conclude by congratulating every winner here today, not the least the Guild Pharmacy of the Year.
I also want to congratulate every nominee, because every nomination is a high accolade in itself.
It's also a message to you that says, 'keep going, you're clearly doing something right.'
But finally, I want to thank all of you for what you do each and every day to help your fellow Australians.
If we get things right this decade, we can set up Australia for the many decades ahead.
But this is crunch time in so many areas of local politics as well as the Australia that I want to see.
An Australia that is stronger economically, but also fairer.
Because it will be - a fairer economy is a stronger economy as well.
But also one in which we continue to not just be proud of the health system that we've delivered, but work to strengthen it into the future.
I look forward to working with you hand in hand in the years ahead to make sure that we deliver on our joint commitment to do just that.
Thanks very much.
