Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Members will be appointed to the two new committees on the basis of their expertise and not their representative affiliations. The scheduling policy framework endorsed by government already makes provision for each committee to include a member with expertise in industry matters. The inclusion of a member with expertise from each sector of the therapeutic goods industry would attract criticism from other groups with an interest in scheduling and an expectation that additional seats would be offered to them. The committee would be totally unworkable under these circumstances.