Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I also support this amendment. I would have preferred the ALP amendment but I recognise that the government wishes to keep control of this. I was not able to make a second reading contribution to this debate. It is a very complex bill and a difficult one to understand in a very short time frame. There were not a lot of submissions; there certainly were none, I think it is fair to say, that were able to make an in-depth critique of this legislation. So it was certainly our feeling that a review would assist us to know whether or not we were doing the right thing in supporting this legislation. The PBS is a fundamentally important part of our health system and we were very nervous about supporting something which might undermine it in any way. We were very supportive of the idea that we should be moving to generic-brand medicines in this country, acknowledging that we pay more for them than other countries do. So it is a complex and difficult issue to deal with. As I said, we would have liked more time to look into this legislation, but that was not to be. We look forward to the review that this amendment provides for and hope that it is done in a very comprehensive and honest way so that we know whether this legislation has been effective or not.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bill reported with amendments; report adopted.