Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

There are pretty good reasons, in answer to Senator Allison’s question regarding the necessity for a new category of person to be on the council with expertise in ethics relating to research involving humans. It needs to be stressed that the legislation does not require that a person with experience in ethics relating to research involving humans must be appointed. The legislation does not require that at all. Rather, the legislation—as I have stated but will state yet again—provides that at least six but no more than 11 persons with expertise in one or more areas on a list of skills and qualifications must be appointed. One of the people that can be selected is a person with expertise in ethics relating to research involving humans. I do not think that anybody in this chamber or, indeed, within the broader community would object to serious consideration being given to the appointment of such a person. Arguments regarding ethics in this area of research are very strong out there in the community, and I think that there would be very broad acceptance if consideration was given to such a person being appointed.

The inclusion of this category will, in most cases, enable the appointment of the chair of AHEC to council, noting that the chairs of the principal committees are no longer automatically appointed to the council but, rather, council members must be appointed first with chairs being drawn from council. Including as a possible category of membership a person with expertise in ethics suggests an obvious potential person to be the chair of AHEC. The proposed legislation simply provides flexibility to ensure that the most appropriate people can be appointed to council.