Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak for the first time on the real business of the Senate by joining the debate on the report of the Finance and Public Administra­tion References Committee on the admini­stration of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This was my first engagement with the committee system. It is an invaluable way for the government, the parliament and the community to engage with issues that affect their lives. I thank the committee members for helping me through my first days and, in particular, Senator Ryan, who was very helpful with some of my questions.

The PBS is well regarded internationally. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is loved by Aust­ralians. It is a scheme which provides secure access to lifesaving medication for Australians and they quite rightly are very protective of it. It is a sound invest­ment in the health of Australians and it is one of the few areas of public policy that has been based on demonstrated cost effectiveness. So we need to be very protective of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

We understand the dilemma that the government is in. It is expensive and the cost of medication is increasing all the time. We know that there are competing priorities for our healthcare spending and it is prudent for the government to review the expen­diture of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. But the decision by this government to defer the listing of a number of important medications was a serious mistake and we urge the government to reconsider that decision.

It is one of the few areas of public policy that has managed to unite the coalition, the Greens, the pharmaceutical companies, the health professionals, industry groups and consumer health groups against a decision made by a government. It was a bad decision and it has in fact undermined the integrity of what is a very rigorous process. It has shaken the faith of people in the industry, consumers and the industry itself because it relies on the fact that the industry is able to invest in medication, achieve certain benchmarks and know that when the time comes, if those benchmarks are achieved, that medication will be listed.

The Greens have tried to be very constructive through this process, and we think that there are other areas of action that may warrant some attention. In particular, we think that the issue of the generic industry has the potential to save the government billions of dollars. One of the critical things that needs to happen is that generic medication needs to be made available without delay when patents expire on originator medications.

We need to make sure that there are incentives within the system to ensure that manufacturers have proper incentives to discount their drugs. We need to make sure that mandatory price reporting is not weakened and applies across all major therapeutic classes. We also need to ensure that the medical profession is prescribing medication according to guidelines that are efficient and that we are prescribing medications for the prescribed indications. We do believe it is a mistake. We know that there have been precedents for this. We know that there have been several occasions where the government has made a decision to defer the listing of a medication that has been approved by the PBAC. However, on this occasion the circumstances are very different. We think that it is critical that the government review this decision in light of the number of submissions that were presented to this committee and we think we need to be focusing on the long-term sustainability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme through the measures that we have described in that report. We urge the government to reconsider.