Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference – 16 March 2025

CLAIRE CLUTTERHAM: Good morning, everyone. My name is Claire Clutterham. We're gathered here this morning on Kuarna land at the Repromed Clinic in the heart of Sturt. It's a pleasure to be here this morning with Minister Mark Butler, the Federal Health Minister, as he makes a very significant announcement in relation to the Labor Government's continued investment in women's health. I'm also very pleased this morning to be joined by Senator Marielle Smith, Dr Juliette Koch, who is the Medical Director of Repromed, Dr Helena Shehadeh, who is the Head of Pathology here at Repromed, and who also is a patient very successful, as you can see, she's with baby Zayn, a patient of Repromed. And finally, KJ, who is a young woman who will share some stories with us about her experience of women's health. I'll throw to the Minister.
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Thank you, Claire, we're so lucky to have Claire as our candidate in this part of Adelaide, the electorate of Sturt, with her extraordinary experience, including as a Board Member of the Royal Flying Doctors, she really understands healthcare policy. And I'm also delighted that Marielle has joined us this morning. She has really led efforts in South Australia to shine a spotlight on issues of women's health, which have been frankly neglected for far too long. And I'm really excited about some of the announcements we'll make here today. And to Juliette and Helena and KJ, thank you for joining us and adding your extraordinary experiences. And thank you to Repromed for allowing us to be here on Sunday morning. This is a place that has brought such tremendous news to so many South Australians. It's a really beautiful institution.

For the last couple of years now, including through a number of Marielle’s Senate Inquiries, we've been hearing story after story from Australia's women that they feel they've just not been given the support that they need and they deserve in a whole range of areas, to do with their health. Some conditions like endometriosis that affect as many as 1 million Australian women. But also health issues that don't reflect women being sick, they just reflect women being women and having responsibility for contraception, for reproductive health and choices that families will make. And also going through life cycles like perimenopause and menopause. Our government has been heavily focused on trying to catch up on those decades of neglect.
 
As I said, when we came to government, there had not been a new listing on the PBS for endometriosis medicines for three decades. There had not been a new contraceptive pill listed on the PBS for three decades. In spite of many others entering the private market with women paying top dollar, there had not been a new menopause hormone treatment on the PBS for more than 20 years as well. Last month, Marielle and I announced in Canberra a record $573 million women's health package, which started to undo that historical neglect. For the first time in those decades, we had three new menopause hormone treatments listed on the PBS, saving tens of thousands of women, many hundreds of dollars every year. We had two new oral contraceptive pills, Yaz and Yasmin listed the first for three decades.
 
I'm really pleased today to announce that the third private oral contraceptive pill that has up until now been essentially available on the private market will also be listed on the PBS and that is Slinda. The only single hormone oral contraceptive pill that is used by as many as 100,000 women today currently paying top dollar price. So from the 1st of May, that will be available at PBS prices, instead of paying about $320 a year, all of those women will have that pill available to them for as little as $25 a year, if they're on a concession card. Also in December, I announce the first new endometriosis medicine on the PBS for more than 30 years Visanne, and I'm delighted today to announce that we will list a second endo medicine, so two in five months after 30 years of nothing.
 
Ryeqo will be listed on the 1st of May. A medicine particularly for women experiencing moderate to severe pain that's not been able to be alleviated through other treatments. And this medicine, which we think will be used by as many as 8,500 Australian women suffering endometriosis, would otherwise cost them almost $3,000. Now, I just quickly want to say that I've seen some commentary this morning that we had waited 12 months after a recommendation from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to list this endometriosis medicine. I want to clarify that although the Advisory Committee did issue a recommendation in March last year, the company exercised its right to take the matter back to the Advisory Committee - they weren't happy with the scope of the recommendation, and so a final recommendation was only listed by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in January this year, and within a matter of weeks, we have acted on that with a finalised price negotiation with the company, and we'll be able to provide availability of that medicine as early as the 1st of May and that's a very important point to clarify. Two endo medicines in five months after 30 years of nothing.
 
But I'm particularly delighted today to be here at Repromed with Zayn, in particular, to announce the expansion of a leading fertility treatment produced by Merck, which is Pergoveris. This is a fertility treatment used during IVF for women with low levels of a specific reproductive hormone. Up until now, it has only been available in later cycles, and all of us know either through direct experience or through stories of family and friends the anguish of failed cycles and failed attempts to convey conceive through IVF. Also up until now, Pergoveris has only been reimbursed for two pens, so if you're not able to conceive after the use of two pens, the PBS no longer supports you. Now, IVF is an extraordinary innovation that still delivers families 20,000 beautiful babies here in Australia every year, but it is a difficult process for many families, and it is a highly costly process for many families as well. I'm delighted that from the 1st of April, Pergoveris will firstly be available to those women with low levels of that specific hormone from the get go. It will be available at the earliest opportunity, and it will also be reimbursed by the PBS for four pens, not two. This will deliver thousand of Australian families much better support to get through their IVF journey and experience their beautiful baby like Zayn, much quicker, much more cheaply and much more easily. I'll hand over now to Dr Koch to talk a bit about this treatment.
 
DR JULIETTE KOCH: Thank you, Minister Butler. This initiative is a really big win for women's health. It's actually going to help thousands of women over the phases of their life cycle, and it's so important to have affordable options for women throughout their life. The first medication Slinda is a progesterone only pill, which is really helpful. It's actually a new generation progesterone, and it's more effective than older medications and really helpful for women who can't tolerate the normal pill. Ryeqo is a combined medication that works to suppress the body's natural production of oestrogen, which drives endometriosis. As the Minister said, endometriosis affects a very large number of women, and this medication will help pain, quality of life, and potentially can also prevent infertility. And we know that women with endometriosis, about a third of them will suffer with infertility. Hence, anything to make IVF medications more affordable is very, very welcome. Pergoveris is a combined medication. It comes in a single pen, which is brilliant for our patients, because it's so easy. This new expansion of the PBS for Pergoveris is going to remove that cost barrier that so many women have faced. We really welcome anything that helps families begin or for people to extend their families. It's a really important initiative right now, because Australia's fertility rates are at an all-time low. With that, I'd like to introduce Helena to tell us a little bit more and give us a personal insight into IVF.
 
HELENA SHEHADEH: Thank you, Dr Koch. I was diagnosed and still have endometriosis and adenomyosis. I went through two IVF cycles. My first one, unfortunately, wasn't successful, but my second one, obviously, you can see here. I had Pergoveris In my second cycle, which was very helpful. I just think anything that we can do to help make IVF more affordable and more accessible, especially a drug like Pergoveris would be great. Thank you.
 
KELLY-JADE SCHINELLA: Hi, I'm KJ, I'm currently using Slinda, a contraceptive pill. I have been on other combined contraceptive pills and failed because I've had a lot of bad symptoms with those. And finally, my GP recommended that I try Slinda and so far I haven't had any issues at all. It's been really good. I'm also an endometriosis sufferer, so a lot of pain, bloating and cramping and that sort of thing and Slinda has been absolutely fantastic. I think that adding it to the PBS is making it really affordable for a lot of women who, perhaps you know, are not able to have access to it financially. Yeah, I think this is fantastic for a lot of women.
 
SENATOR MARIELLE SMITH: Hi everyone, when it comes to women's health, you don't need to dig very deep at all to see instances where women's pain is minimised, where their pain and symptoms are dismissed. Over the course of two Senate inquiries we’ve run this term of Parliament into women's health, we've heard from hundreds and hundreds of women who told us that their pain was minimised, their pain was dismissed, that they wanted to be taken seriously when it came to their health, that women were sick of paying a tax on their health simply because they are women. Our government has listened to all of them. We've listened to all Australian women, and through this announcement, we're seeking to change a system which has short changed women. I'm really proud of what our government is doing. You can trust our government when it comes to women's health, because we're hearing women directly, and we're acting on what they've told us.
 
JOURNALIST: How much will putting these drugs on the PBS cost the budget?
 
BUTLER: All of those costs will be presented in the Budget papers in due course. Some of those are subject to commercial negotiations, but this will be covered by the usual PBS budget arrangements. This is an important investment in the health of Australia's women, and it builds on the record investment that I announced in early February along with Senator Smith.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you have a total figure for three medications?
 
BUTLER: I don't have a total figure right now, but they'll be provided in all of the budget papers. There are new listings every month on the PBS, and that update is provided on a regular basis.
 
JOURNALIST: We've seen, like you've been saying, multiple drugs come on to the PBS in the past few months, we're obviously coming up to a federal election soon. What do you think women watching on what do you think this will mean for their vote?
 
BUTLER: One of our highest priorities in health has been making medicines cheaper. When we came to government, there were a million Australians who were telling government that they were going without medicines their doctor had said was important for their health because of cost. We've been really focused on making medicines cheaper across the board, but also, in particular in relation to some of the issues we've talked about this morning. We heard the message from those Senate inquiries that women wanted their health care issues taken more seriously. That's why I went to a number of the companies who had menopause hormone treatments and oral contraceptive pills available in the private market, and encouraged them to bring those products to the PBS. I also wrote to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and urged them to consider those applications. Particularly in the areas of menopause and contraception, there has needed to be a bit of a nudge from me and from the government to bring some of those products that have been available on the private market with women like KJ paying top price for them, bring them to the PBS and get the sorts of savings that happen in so many other areas of medicine.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you see any ironies today in the announcements? One medication or PBS is preventing women from getting parents pregnant, and another that's helping them get pregnant?
 
BUTLER: Not at all. Our lodestar here has been providing women with choice, and critical to that choice is the availability of different products and affordability of different products. At the end of the day, it will be for women and families to decide when they want to start to have children, and that is that is the critical guiding light for us, providing women with choice, a better service and greater affordability
 
JOURNALIST: Going into the federal election. Is this sort of a pointer to say that you're the government for women, that women should turn to?
 
BUTLER: We are the government for health. we created Medicare. We've defended Medicare for more than 40-years. We've created the PBS and defended that for 75-years. We are absolutely committed to maintaining a universal health care system, not an American style user pay system. I think that's a critical debate for Australia to have in the coming election. Now, the truth is that women use about 60 per cent of healthcare services. As Marielle said so articulately, often not because they're sick, but because they're women, and because women bear responsibility in households for the reproductive choices that impact their households. Women go through perimenopause and menopause as just a natural part of their lives. So yes, a strong Medicare, a strong PBS impacts women more than men, arguably, but this is a general approach we have to making sure that we retain an Australian universal health care system and don't go down the road of an American style user pays system.
 
JOURNALIST: What do you think the alternative would be in the federal election, an alternative leader, what that would mean?
 
BUTLER: We've seen that with Peter Dutton as Health Minister 10 years ago. He did try to take Australia down the path of a user pay system, an American style user pay system, by making every person pay to go to the doctor, making every person pay to go into a hospital emergency department. Labor's view is that is not the Australian healthcare system that Australians want. We're being focused on bolstering and strengthening Medicare, which has served our country so well for four decades, and frankly, catching up on some areas that have been neglected for decades, and that has been the focus of the Women's Health announcements that we've made over the past five or six weeks.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you feel that an alternative government could reverse some of these decisions for medications being covered on the PBS?
 
BUTLER: I think that would be a terrible thing to happen. Frankly, not enough, as Marielle has said, has happened in this area for too long. We're trying to catch up decades of neglect and underperformance for women's health, and we will fight to defend that over the coming election. Thanks everyone.