Now lawHealth & Care Introduced in the House of Representatives, 26 Nov 2025

Trained nurses can now write PBS scripts

Some registered nurses now have extra training to prescribe. They can be approved to write scripts for cheaper medicines under the medicine subsidy scheme. The government says this will help people get medicines faster, mostly in country areas.

Official name: Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Registered nurses: Those with the new prescribing approval can apply to write scripts for subsidised medicines.
• Patients, mostly in country and remote areas: You could get a cheaper script from a nurse without waiting to see a doctor.
• Doctors and other prescribers: They can team up with nurse prescribers through a written deal.
• Services Australia, which runs Medicare and Centrelink: Its staff will approve, pause or cancel nurse prescribers for the health department.

Few could write PBS scripts

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is the medicine subsidy scheme. It makes many medicines cheaper. To get the cheap price, you need a script from an approved prescriber. Until now these were doctors, dentists, some eye care workers, some midwives and nurse practitioners. A nurse practitioner is a nurse with a senior role. They could already prescribe some of these medicines.

Registered nurses make up about half of Australia's health workers. They also work in more places across the country than any other health job. The government says the health system is under pressure. People are living longer and more people have long-term illness. It says country areas have the hardest time getting care.

In December 2024, federal, state and territory health ministers agreed to a new standard. It lets some registered nurses prescribe. It is called the Designated Registered Nurse Prescriber approval. It started on 30 September 2025. The first nurses were expected to finish their training and start prescribing from July 2026.

That standard lets nurses prescribe under state law. This law lets their scripts get the cheap price under the subsidy scheme. Health Minister Mark Butler brought it to Parliament.

Who can prescribe

The law creates a new type of approved prescriber. It is called an authorised nurse prescriber.

First, you must be a registered nurse who meets the tests the minister sets. The main test is holding the new prescribing approval. That comes from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, the body that registers nurses.

Then you apply in writing to the health department. Services Australia staff will handle the forms. You must have a written deal with at least one other approved prescriber. That could be a doctor, midwife or nurse practitioner.

You can only prescribe medicines your partner could also prescribe. Say you team up with a midwife. You could only prescribe the subsidised medicines that midwife can prescribe. You must keep your deal and show it to the department if asked.

What nurses can prescribe

The health minister decides which subsidised medicines nurse prescribers can prescribe. This list is set in a formal rule. Parliament can cancel that rule.

Patients who see a nurse prescriber can get these medicines at the normal cheap price. They pay the usual amount at the chemist. Nurse prescribers can also hand out small amounts of some medicines straight from a prescriber bag, without a script. Some other prescribers can already do this.

Say you live on a remote farm and see the clinic nurse about a chest infection. Antibiotics might be on the nurse prescriber list. If so, the nurse could write you a cheap script there and then.

Losing approval

The department can pause or cancel a nurse's approval. It can do this if they stop meeting the tests or break a condition.

First it must tell the nurse why in writing. It must give them 28 days to reply. If it does not decide within 60 days after that, it counts as a decision not to act.

A nurse who is refused, paused or cancelled can ask the department to look at the decision again. After that, they can appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal. That body checks government decisions, like a court but less formal.

Watchdog checks on prescribing

The Professional Services Review is an agency that checks health workers. It checks whether they billed Medicare properly and wrote scripts for subsidised medicines properly. It looks for bad practice. That means conduct other workers in the same job would find unacceptable.

The law adds nurse prescribers to that system. A nurse might be found to have written scripts badly. Then their approval can be paused, the same as for other prescribers.

Start date

The bill went into the House of Representatives, Parliament's main house, on 26 November 2025. The House passed it on 5 February 2026.

The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 1 July 2026. It added two changes from the Jacqui Lambie Network, a small party led by Senator Jacqui Lambie. The House did not agree with those changes. On 2 July 2026 the Senate dropped them. So the bill passed as first written.

The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 6 July 2026. It became Act No. 65 of 2026, its official law number. It started the next day. Nurses can only apply and prescribe once the minister makes the extra rules, such as the list of medicines.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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