Patients with chronic conditions are set to receive two months of medicine for the price of one from 1 September, after the Senate voted down a Coalition push to tear up Labor’s 60-day dispensing changes.
The changes, which are estimated to save six million Australians up to $180 a year for each medicine, faced a disallowance motion brought by the opposition in the Senate on Thursday morning.
The Coalition attempted to delay its own disallowance until 4 September to give the government time to pause its policy – an offer the health minister, Mark Butler, declined to take up.
Labor, the Greens and senators David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and Jacqui Lambie voted in the Senate to reject the delaythen to bring on the disallowance motion 31 votes to 26.
The motion was in the name of the shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, the Nationals leader in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie, One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts, and former Liberal David Van. But when the moment arrived, none pressed it.
The Senate president, Sue Lines, announced the motion would remain on the books until the next sitting day, in case another senator wanted to adopt the motion.
In question time, Anthony Albanese denounced the “farce”, describing the motion as an “orphan” after the Coalition “lost six votes trying to block the vote being held”.
After question time, the Labor senator Louise Pratt adopted the orphaned disallowance motion, allowing the Senate to finally vote it down.
McKenzie immediately announced that the Coalition had lodged “another disallowance” motion that could see the measure put to a vote in the week of 4 September.
“This highlights for the government that we are very very serious, it is not good enough to say this is not going to have a negative impact, that people’s healthcare delivery particularly in the regions won’t be impacted when it actually will,” she said.
Butler told reporters in Canberra that this was a “destructive” move, quipping that the “circus continues” after a day of procedural difficulties in the Senate.
Coalition senators argued with the Senate president as she sided with Labor at key moments, and joked at Pratt’s expense that she might be expelled for adopting their motion.
At one point Thorpe exclaimed “stop disrupting the Senate” before a knowing laugh, well aware of her reputation as its principal disruptor. Pocockappeared to tune out the procedural noise while reading a volume on the housing crisis.
The 60-day dispensing changes are supported by doctors’ groups including the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners as well as patient groups including the Consumer Health Forum.
The changes will now take effect from 1 September, but Butler revealed the government is still seeking legal advice about whether 60-day scripts will be valid if the September disallowance is successful.
Earlier on Thursday, Ruston said the Coalition would aim to “postpone it until a later date to give the government the opportunity to actually show good faith”.
The Liberal Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, told the Senate he “condemned” Labor’s tactics forcing on a vote after a “generous offer” from the Coalition to delay.
Labor says 60-day dispensing will save patients more than $1.6bn over the next four years. The policy is estimated to cost pharmacies $1.2bn due to less frequent dispensing fees.
The Pharmacy Guild has lobbied intensely against the policy, seeking compensation from the government and warning of staff cuts and fee increases for services such as packing Webster packs for elderly patients.
In in-store campaign material, pharmacists have claimed the policy has contributed to medicine shortages and urged patients to blame the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
The Australian Medical Association president, Prof Steve Robson, told reporters in Canberra the Coalition were trying to “kill off” an opportunity for “cost-of-living improvements for patients”.
Nicole Higgins, president of the RACGP, called on the Senate to “put patients before profit”.
“Bigger pack sizes and longer prescriptions will have medications cheaper and easier for patients and it will free up GP appointments.”
Elizabeth Deveny, chief executive of the Consumer Health Forum, said 60-day dispensing would make a “significant” impact on cost-of-living pressures, especially for patients travelling “hundreds of kilometres to pharmacies” or who were not getting their scripts filled because they couldn’t afford them.
