Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

This is what you get when you rush things. During the whole debate that we have had about the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) Bill 2007, I have made the point that this has been rushed through the Senate. This was referred to a committee on a Thursday; the committee met on a Friday and reported on a Monday. It has been a completely rushed process. When you report on a Monday and expect to deal with a bill properly and appropriately through the Senate processes alone you make mistakes. And I am afraid this is a perfect example of a government not thinking things through. We are talking about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. It is a scheme that Australians are, and should be, proud of. If the Howard government is going to make legislation in this way, and with these sorts of results, it is quite reasonable for the Australian public to be somewhat perturbed.

We will, of course, be supporting this amendment. Its intent is correct. This a question of process. It is a process issue where this government, once again, has failed to get it right. I said, earlier in debate in the committee stage of this bill, that we are doing a lot of legislation by luck. I think this is legislation by hope. We hope that the government’s intent in this bill will be achieved. We hope that patients will not bear the brunt of these changes to the pricing arrangements of pharmaceuticals, but without the modelling and without the information that this government should have provided us, it is, unfortunately, not a position that one can hold strongly.

This is embarrassing for the government. They should be embarrassed. This is a principle that has been part of this place for eons. Maybe ‘eons’ is overstating it, but it has been a principle for a very long time. This is an error that should not have been made but Labor will be supporting it. We supported the intent initially and we hope that the government learns from this debacle. It has tried to push legislation through the Senate and as a result we have ended up with mistakes being made.