Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his question in relation to pharmaceutical companies. Can I say the use of pharmaceutical companies in Australia’s health system is underpinned by an evidence based approach. Pharmaceuticals are only subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme on the independent expert clinical advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. All of these processes have strong frameworks in place to manage conflicts of interest, ensuring that pharmaceutical companies cannot have undue influence on decisions about the entry or subsidisation of medicines in Australia.

If you look at the key facts around this issue you find that, more broadly, from 2006 the former government responded to public concerns about the prescription of ADHD medication, particularly in young children, by promising to develop guidelines. What this government has done is— (Time expired)