Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Let me tell you that more drugs is not necessarily better medicine. It is not a matter for this debate today, but I would point out that the increasing use of drugs in itself comes with a penalty clause. There are thousands of people in Australian hospitals today because of the use of drugs rather than because of the original illness they had. The whole medical system is under huge pressure—look at the series of articles in the Age a few months back—from the drug corporations, because they make their money out of it. They have a different philosophy to what we as legislators have, which is to look after the best interests of Australians—both their pockets and their health—and to what medical experts have in wanting to deliver good health to their patients.

So more is not necessarily better. In fact, what underpins the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is the need to ensure that drugs do not come onto the scheme unless they have a very clear advantage over drugs which are already on the scheme—unless the drug has some new capability to improve people’s health or to reverse the symptoms of an illness which they are suffering. There is the problem. We are concerned that the legislation we are seeing today will allow the corporations to get more drugs onto the system without improving the outcomes for Australians. Their interest is to sell drugs; our interest is to get the best health outcome at the lowest price possible for the Australian people. We are concerned that this legislation gives more power to the pharmaceutical corporations. We looked at that advice group. It has certainly given the pharmaceutical corporations, as far as its advice to government is concerned, veto power—the power to ensure that advice that is not in the interests of their profit line simply does not go forward to the minister. The department might give contrary advice, but that is a different matter. I ask Senator Mason to inform the chamber how this particular legislation improves the reference pricing system, which is so important and fundamental to the PBS.