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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-08 Daily Xml
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CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES (THERAPEUTIC GOODS AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 24 November 2010.)

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (15:40): I rise to provide some comments in relation to this bill which I understand is reasonably technical in that it seeks to straddle the commonwealth and state regimes that apply to therapeutic goods and prescribing. I received a letter from the minister last month containing a brief paragraph that I will read into the record for the benefit of members. The letter states:

[This bill] enables nurse practitioners and midwives (with the relevant endorsements) to practice to the full scope of their competence and to prescribe some scheduled medicines. This would result in their patients being able to access subsidised medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, as well as providing people, particularly in rural areas, with greater access to healthcare. The bill will also enable items such as cosmetics and deodorants to be sold via vending machine, as well as place controls on the unscheduled medicines and medical devices that would be permitted to be sold via vending machines, such as small packs of paracetamol and syringes. Finally, the bill also seeks to apply the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 [of the commonwealth] as a law of South Australia to ensure that there are no gaps in the regulation of medicines and medical devices in South Australia.

There was fairly extensive discussion of this bill in the House of Assembly so I will refer people to those debates. I do note that we have had changes to our registration of health practitioners which is moving to a federal regime and that has captured some of these issues, and therefore the prescription and related matters need to be unified to provide that those practices can take place within people's scope of practice and within their training. I do not propose to go over all of that in great detail.

I do note that my learned colleague the Hon. Stephen Wade has an amendment to this particular bill which he will address at the committee stage of the debate. I indicate that we are generally supportive of this bill. I note too that there are some tricky issues that I think have arisen for quite some decades which could be described as professional patches, that the nursing federation is very active in seeking the recognition of nurse practitioners and that the AMA is concerned about allowing midwives and nurse practitioners to provide prescription drugs and other medications under the PBS.

However, that is a matter for other debate rather than, I think, hindering what may take place through the mechanisms of this bill. With those brief words, I indicate that we support the bill and look forward to the committee stage of the debate.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:43): I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens on the bill before us today. We welcome this bill, which, as the government has outlined, takes account of national registration of health practitioners and enables registered health practitioners to practice to the full scope of their competence. We also take particular interest in the work that is being done here in terms of authorising eligible midwives and nurse practitioners to prescribe schedule 4 and schedule 8 prescription drugs, and we welcome that.

We note that this bill comes before us partly in relation to (and just some months since) the national registration of health practitioners was debated in this place. Many would remember that that debate in fact took place in the final possible hours by this state and at a very late juncture in terms of registration for health practitioners moving to a national scheme. The lateness of our state in that debate saw our state registration officers keenly awaiting and listening to our debate in this place as they sat with files and boxes, not knowing where they would be working the week after, whether or not a state registration scheme would have to be continued or whether they would be moving to the national system.

At that stage we raised concerns at the lateness of our debate on that bill and a state government having such a long lead time and such a long discussion time and yet putting legislation to enable the national registration scheme before a parliament in the final hours. Unfortunately, our fears have been realised. We have seen in the media recently that, in fact, the national registration scheme is in disarray.

Last week the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, was seeking advice as thousands of doctors around the country were left unregistered. Many health practitioners around the country are unclear whether or not they are registered due to administrative issues. This has occurred because we have not had full and proper debate in a timely manner in our state parliaments, and I think that is a shame. I do hope that the federal government addresses this with a great deal of urgency, and I trust that all efforts will be put into that.

Getting back to the bill at hand before us right now, as we are aware the national boards now govern those who are registered under their patches (as the Hon. Michelle Lensink mentioned), and nurses and midwives are one such group. Prescription by midwives and nurse practitioners is a very important element of this bill that the Greens welcome. In fact, we would like to see women given more birthing choices in this country and not fewer. We would like to see nurse practitioners and midwives given a greater role in our health system, and we hope that this goes some way to doing that.

Of course, we acknowledge that under the current system and under the maternity services federal budget package we are still with a scheme where a doctor is required to prescribe many of the drugs that are needed in more complicated cases. However, again, we welcome the fact that some moves are being made here. We were also pleased that the minister offered us a briefing on this matter. Minister Hill and his staff member, Alexandra Keen, were very generous with their time; and also the chief pharmacist, Mr Steve Morris, and the manager of policy and legislation for the minister in his department, Ms Liz Hender, shared their expertise, which was gratefully appreciated by the Greens.

We are also looking in this bill at the supply, for example, of medical therapeutic goods, if you like, such as condoms in vending machines. I am pleased to see that needle exchange programs and condoms in vending machines and other such harm minimisation strategies are supported by this legislation, and I look forward to those programs continuing under this state government. The Greens certainly very wholeheartedly support that harm minimisation approach to health in this area. We do not have any amendments to this bill, and we look forward to the progress of this bill through the committee stage. With that, I commend the bill.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. Carmel Zollo.

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