Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

No assurance there. I want to ask about the Medicines Working Group—not the earlier group we were talking about—which is listed on the department’s website. The website says:

Australia and the United States agreed to establish a Medicines Working Group (MWG), with the objective of promoting discussion and mutual understanding of issues relating to the Pharmaceuticals Annex of the AUSFTA.

The Medicines Working Group provides a forum for discussion between officials of federal government agencies responsible for healthcare programs and other appropriate federal government officials. No industry representatives attend these meetings.

By crikey, they are in the wings, though; particularly with representatives from the United States government. Back to the website:

The framework in which the Medicines Working Group operates is detailed in the agreed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which cover the group’s composition, chair arrangements and meeting procedures. The first meeting of the Medicines Working Group was held in Washington, DC on 13 January 2006. The second meeting was held in Sydney on 30 April 2007. The discussions at both meetings were on issues relating to the pharmaceutical provisions of the AUSFTA. The Agendas and the Joint Statements for these meetings may be found below.

Then there are matters relating to trade opportunities:

The AUSFTA will create significant new benefits and opportunities for Australia. Opportunities relevant to the health sector include:

Full access for Australian goods and services to the $200 billion US federal government procurement market.

Enhanced legal protections that grant market access and non-discriminatory treatment for Australian service providers in the US market, with only limited exceptions.

The Australia-only E-3 Visa (10,000 a year) complements the FTA by allowing a growing number of skilled Australians and their spouses to live and work in the United States.

There is nothing mentioned about the PBS and the advantages that may flow. There is another section on intellectual property and generic medicines. Are the minutes of the Medicines Working Group deliberations available? Who specifically is or was on the Medicines Working Group; where is it next due to meet and what discussion, if any, of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or reference pricing was had at those two meetings held to date?