Mystery solved over Hansard change to hide budget’s missing $10 drug price cut

As the government faced a grilling at senate estimates on Monday, a mysterious wink from a public servant stole the show. 

Questions for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet started with Labor senator Tim Ayres demanding to know why secretary Philip Gaetjens did not show up, with Ayres expressing annoyance at not being able to ask about his report into the Brittany Higgins response. 

Senate estimates bring mysterious wink, net-zero deal silence and training video pressure

Serious incident’ training yet to be completed by head of parliamentary department A video designed to help Parliament House employees handle ‘serious incidents’ has been viewed by less than half the required staff

Mystery solved over Hansard change to hide budget’s missing $10 drug price cut

Financial Services Minister Jane Hume’s office asked Hansard staff to delete references to a planned $10 cut to the price of medicines that did not make it into the budget after she mistakenly referred to it in Parliament.

Bureaucrats initially dodged questions over who had demanded the change, but Department Secretary Rob Stefanic confirmed in writing on Monday evening that Senator Hume had requested the amendment.

In Parliament last week, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar and Senator Hume referred to a $10 reduction in the price of PBS medicines for all Australians, but this was not in the budget and these references mysteriously disappeared from Hansard.

While minor amendments to Hansard that do not alter the substance of what was said are usual, substantive changes without a formal correction of the record are controversial as Hansard is supposed to show the true record of what is said in the Chamber.

Senator Hume’s office had requested that changes be made to her second reading speech shortly after she delivered it in the Senate last Wednesday “to reflect the changes made in the corresponding House of Representatives speech delivered by the Hon Michael Sukkar MP,” Mr Stefanic wrote.

Department of Parliamentary Services Secretary Rob Stefanic has been grilled over who requested Hansard be amended to remove a ministerial error.  DOMINIC LORRIMER

But, he said in the letter to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, the changes were in line with Hansard editing and corrections policy.

“Specifically, corrections that are acceptable to Hansard include: Errors of fact: corrections to names, numbers, figures, and dates when the wrong information was originally given and the speaker has checked them since,” he wrote.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg refused to acknowledge the ministerial error on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

Mr Sukkar has declined to say whether he or his office requested the House of Representatives Hansard be amended.

On Monday morning, Labor senator Katy Gallagher asked during a budget estimates hearing: “Who requested the change to the Hansard?” but Department of Parliamentary Services Acting Assistant Secretary Kate Tunks declined to answer

“I will need to take that question on notice to be able to give you a purely accurate answer and give you the detail that you need,” Ms Tunks said.

Senator Gallagher said: “I can’t see why you wouldn’t be aware of it ... it was a pretty big thing that happened.”

“Are you saying to me that you haven’t been briefed on this?”

Ms Tunks replied: “I’d like to take the question on notice.”

Mr Stefanic leapt to his assistant secretary’s defence, saying there was no reason his staff would pay particular notice to the amendment out of “many hundreds of pages that get transcribed” on Parliamentary sitting days.

“It’s not something that the Hansard staff would discern as any different to other Hansard transcripts that we’ll be looking at,” Mr Stefanic told the hearing.

Asked if he had been briefed on the matter, Mr Stefanic said: “I only became aware of it when I viewed Insiders last night.”

In her speech introducing the budget bills tabled in the Senate last week, Senator Hume said the government would “reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general patient charge by $10, from the current amount of $42.50 to the new amount of $32.50 commencing on 1 May 2022”.

“This means that over 3 million Australians will pay less for their medicines each year, with close to 17 million scripts costing patients less,” the speech, tabled in the Senate with this error, said.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar referenced a $10 cut to the price of medicines but it didn’t appear in the budget and the comments were wiped from Hansard. ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN

In a speech to the lower house when introducing the budget bills on Wednesday, Mr Sukkar said “general patients will pay no more than $32.50 of out-of-pocket costs, excluding optional charges imposed by manufacturers. This means that over 3 million Australians will pay less for their medicines each year”.

Instead of this dumped reform, the budget had included a much smaller cut to prescription prices, lowering by 12 the number of scripts people need to pay for before the safety net kicks in, expected to save 2.4 million people an average of $80 a year.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg stumbled over questions about the deleted policy onInsiders on Sunday morning.

Well, what Michael [Sukkar] was talking about, actually was the 2.4 million people that will benefit with reduction in the, in getting multiple scripts,” Mr Frydenberg told the ABC’s David Speers, refusing to acknowledge the assistant minister’s error in Parliament.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham on Monday said he had only learned of the Hansard amendment that morning.

Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, on Monday afternoon tabled a letter to President of the Senate Slade Brockman requesting he investigate whether the Hansard amendment breached Senate rules.

She quoted from Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice that states senators’ corrections to Hansard “must not have the effect of deleting from the record words actually spoken in debate so as to alter the sense of words spoken”.

There are established standards for the alteration and correction of the Hansard record, as well as for ministers who mislead the Parliament to correct the record,” Senator Wong wrote.

“The attempt by Minister Hume (and Minister Sukkar in the House of Representatives) to make such a correction by altering the Hansard record is not an acceptable way to address such a matter ... It is my expectation that you will examine the changes that have been made and take appropriate action.”

Further comment was sought from the government.

Mystery solved over Hansard change to hide budget’s missing $10 drug price cut