Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I state for the benefit of the chamber that the opposition will be supporting the Greens amendments. In fact, they are very similar to amendments that the coalition pursued with the government. The context is that we remain concerned about some of the risks that are inherent in the legislation pursued by the government here today. They are risks that the minister herself identified in opposition—risks to the independence of the PBAC, among other things.

The coalition are great supporters of the PBS, just as we are great supporters of Medicare and great supporters of private health insurance. In fact, under the Howard government, expenditure on pharmaceutical benefits increased from $2.2 billion in 1996-97 to $6.4 billion in 2006-07. Whilst we have given an indication that we will support the bill, we do think that these amendments moved by the Greens are necessary to give proper reassurance to the industry and to the Australian community that the integrity of the PBS is not being compromised.

We support the proposition of a review after the second anniversary of the commencement of this bill and for the review to be completed within four months of that anniversary. We support the amendments around the annual report on processes. We commend the Greens, we commend Senator Siewert, who has moved these amendments on behalf of the Greens, and we commend the amendments to the chamber.