Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, your approach through this is that there is no other regulation around the behaviour, conduct and standards of medical practitioners, which is incorrect. The TGA's role is not to regulate the conduct, capability and standards of medical practitioners.

Well, that's the answer. In relation to the powers of the TGA to issue penalties and things like that, that is in relation to manufacturers, not medical practitioners. So, that is the legal barrier. It's not in the TGA's role. There's the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority, APRA, that does that, in relation to the standards of medical practitioners. I think that's at the heart of your amendment. You obviously disagree with us around a mandatory scheme, as opposed to the TGA being able to have the information available to it through the facilities where women—and others; it's not just women, because it's not just about the mesh devices—present with issues relating to that device, which is likely to be in a health facility. It's not necessarily going to be a GP practice where that device may have been implanted. That is the idea—having the mandatory scheme by the health facilities. And it's not the TGA's role to issue penalties against medical practitioners. It's not the TGA's role, and that is the legal barrier that I referred to earlier in my contribution.