Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I move my amendment on sheet 5124:

(1)    Schedule 2, page 26 (after line 3), at the end of the Schedule, add:

36 After section 47

Insert:

47C Study of non-blood human tissue based therapies

The amendment proposes that a report be prepared to investigate the practicality of establishing a national legislative or regulative approach for effective governance of non-blood, human tissue based therapies. Given that it was not possible for me during the initial debate, or through amendments that I proposed during the second reading debate, to achieve what I was looking to do and that it is quite clear to me—and I think it has been accepted by many others who are involved in this debate—that there are a number of issues that need to be dealt with across the legislative framework, relating to these issues in Australia, I think it is pertinent that a review be undertaken that has a look at this issue across the whole. My proposal is that it be undertaken by a committee established by the minister in similar terms to the Lockhart process, that the committee reports to the parliament and to COAG within 18 months, that it consults with the states and territories in relation to their regulatory frameworks and that it reports to the parliament within 15 days after completion of the report.

In some senses, I think that this potentially provides the capacity for a better outcome than I was searching for in my initial amendments to the bill. Those amendments dealt with only a narrow scope of research. They did not look at the broader issues that I think have been recognised and have come to the fore as part of this process. I suppose as a matter of persistence I would commend this amendment to the Senate. It does not necessarily detract or modify the legislation itself but puts in place a process whereby, in the longer term, there is the capacity for the country to have a better legislative framework across a range of therapies dealing with issues that we are looking at, particularly given the variation of approaches that have turned up as part of this process and as part of my investigation and the investigation of others in relation to the matter we are discussing today.