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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-16 Daily Xml
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ADVANCED MEDICAL INSTITUTE

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:58): There are two issues I would like to raise today that I think will be of particular interest to the member for Schubert, and one is a general issue that I would like to raise. The first issue is the engagement of the member for Taylor to Joe, and I know everyone in this house will wish the member for Taylor all the best on her engagement. I know the member for Schubert is devastated not only that the member for Taylor is leaving this place after the next election (by choice) but also that she is affianced—

Ms Bedford: Definitely unavailable!

The Hon. S.W. KEY: She is definitely unavailable, as the member for Florey said. The second issue I wanted to raise—and this is something that I know that many members in this house have been concerned about—is the Advanced Medical Institute advertisements. I raised as a grievance some time ago that a number of constituents have come to see me with regard to issues associated with the services—if you can call them that—that are provided by the Advanced Medical Institute and also the pharmaceutical goods that have been prescribed to people who have phoned this so-called service.

The reason I mention the member for Schubert is that he and I had quite a serious discussion about some constituents who had also raised this issue with him and some of the concerns that we had about how you actually, as a local state member, deal with those sorts of concerns. I just want to make it clear that that is the connection that I am making with the member for Schubert on that particular issue because we are really keen, as I know are other members in this house, to find out what we can do about this.

There have also been issues raised with regard to the billboards that I think many people found offensive. I am very sad to say that while negotiating in my local community about doing something about the eyesore called the Millswood underpass—which we are looking at, hopefully in the future, as an arts space in our region—we now have a big billboard that talks about the services that are available from the Advanced Medical Institute and, at night, this big yellow sign is highlighted in lights so it is certainly quite obvious in the electorate of Ashford.

As I said, in my last grievance, I have written to the Minister for Health and Ageing (Hon. Nicola Roxon) regarding the services and treatments associated with the Advanced Medical Institute and I was very pleased on Friday to receive a response from the parliamentary secretary to the minister, a position then filled by Senator Jan Lucas—not on Friday, but certainly when she responded to my letter.

I guess the sad news is that the Advanced Medical Institute is not directly under the control of Therapeutic Goods Administration under the auspices of the Australian government. While Therapeutic Goods Administration is responsible for the regulation of therapeutic goods (including prescription medicines) in Australia, it is a general requirement under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 that medical products that are to be imported into, supplied in, or exported from Australia need to be included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, unless an exemption applies.

There are currently, I am advised, no AMI products included on the Register of Therapeutic Goods. However, AMI products are supplied under a provision of the therapeutic goods legislation which allows that the medicine, if manufactured for an individual, be exempt from the requirement to be included in the ARTG prior to supply in Australia. As such, Therapeutic Goods Administration cannot guarantee the quality, safety or efficacy of the product. This practice is called extemporaneous compounding. Because I do not have enough time in this grievance to go into this in further detail, I will conclude by saying that it is now coming under state jurisdiction.

Time expired.

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