Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for the question, Senator. The six-month period is broken down as follows. There will be six weeks for companies to submit their data. This allows for end-of-month receipt of data by companies and time for them to collate and validate their data before submission. The accuracy of this data is very important as it forms the basis of the weighted average percentage calculations. Four weeks is then required for the weighted average percentage calculations to be performed and then independently verified. Companies are then advised of any resulting price reductions determined by a legislative instrument. An eight week period is then set aside for any dispute resolution that is required and a final eight-week period is required for the production of the schedule of pharmaceutical benefits so that new prices can be published on the schedule price reduction day—that is, 1 April 2012. So that six-month period is broken down into required time frames. I think that, when you look at the process that is going to be pursued, we do need six months.