Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will be very brief. I was originally quite sympathetic to this amendment, and in fact had informed Senator O'Neill that I'd probably support it. I now think it is not an appropriate amendment to support. I can see where it's coming from—the need to ensure there's appropriate scrutiny, accountability and transparency—good data and really good scrutiny of the trial. But the arbitrary nature of 20 participants doesn't provide that appropriateness. There's a much more complex lot of factors that you need to take into account, rather than having an arbitrary 20 participants go through a trial.

The other part of the amendment that I was sympathetic to was the need for published data. It is an issue that, for whatever reason, we have not got any published data out of the UK trial. That said, essentially we're beginning a trial. Yes, we absolutely need the scientific evidence—that is the whole purpose of this first stage of the trial. I also note that we do, in fact, have NHMRC at every estimates—if we want to have them—where they can be questioned, and if the Senate feels that they are not doing an appropriate job of oversighting this trial then it is open to us to put more measures in place. So I put on the record that, having considered this very thoroughly, I've decided not to support this amendment.