Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to sum up this debate on the Health Legislation Amendment (Pharmacy Location Arrangements) Bill 2006, I would like to thank all the various members who have taken part. I am sorry that I have not been able to listen in the chamber to all of the speeches, but I was certainly pleased to hear the constructive contribution from the member for Calare, as I was earlier pleased to hear from the member for Lingiari about some of the practical difficulties that his constituents face in accessing pharmaceuticals.

There is no perfect system, but I think as a result of this legislation the system will be better than before. The bill seeks to implement the various provisions of the fourth agreement between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Commonwealth government that was finalised late last year. There are probably two very significant aspects to this legislation that I should again highlight to the House. The first is the provision that the 1.5 kilometre rule—that is to say, the 1.5 kilometre exclusion zone, if you like—for new pharmacy licences can be moderated in the case of large medical centres and small supermarkets. This is a significant change, although it is in keeping with what I take to have been the enduring spirit of these agreements and rules. The other significant change is the provision in the legislation of a discretion to be exercised by the minister after the ordinary procedures have been concluded if, in the judgment of the minister, the operation of the rules is resulting in a substantial denial of access to a significant potential demand.

Another key feature of the agreement is the continued exclusion of supermarkets from retailing pharmaceutical products. I have a great deal of admiration for Australia’s major supermarket chains. Roger Corbett, the head of Woolworths, is a constituent of mine and an extremely distinguished one. Having said that, I am not sure that the culture of general retailing is necessarily appropriate for the culture of the marketing of potentially dangerous drugs. Within reason, we wish to maximise ordinary sales but, generally speaking, we want to minimise the sales of pharmaceuticals to those which are absolutely necessary for the good health of patients.

In addition—and I say this particularly conscious of the presence in the chamber of the member for Calare—the fourth pharmacy agreement provides for a $150 million community service obligation fund. This should ensure that we continue to have timely delivery of low-volume drugs everywhere and of drugs to non-metropolitan pharmacies.

This is a piece of legislation which further develops our excellent Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We have a good system for the sale and distribution of pharmaceutical drugs in this country. But it can always be finetuned, it can always be finessed and I think that is precisely what this legislation does. I commend it to the House.

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