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August 10, 2023
PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now is Shadow Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister James Paterson. James, good to see you, thanks for your time this morning. So, by voting against these new dispensing rules, are you turning your back on the 6 million Australians?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Peter. Well of course not. I mean, everyone is in favour of delivering cheaper medicines to Australians. That's something we're very proud of that we achieved in our time in government by listing a range of new medicines on the PBS. It's something that Labor failed to do when they were last in government. But this could have very serious unintended consequences on community pharmacies, particularly in rural and regional communities, and no one is better off if they lose their only medical care, in which it is some regional communities and in some remote communities, their only retail presence for a long, long way. And the government's lack of consultation, lack of consideration for these issues is leading to really significant angst in the community and obviously particularly with community pharmacy operators.
STEFANOVIC: So what's the option moving forward? Keep things as they are?
PATERSON: Well, we support 60-day dispensing. We think that is achievable, but we think that the government needs to come to the table and have a proper conversation with pharmacists to make sure that they can resolve this issue and support the viability of regional and rural pharmacies in particular. There's nothing to stop the government from doing that except their willingness to do so. And that's why we've been willing to move this disallowance motion to force them to come to the table to do the consultation they should have always done and shouldn't have needed to be forced to meet up by the Opposition.
STEFANOVIC: So, if the 60-day dispensing rules maintain the same. What else can they do? More subsidies?
PATERSON: Well, the government's got a whole range of levers at the disposal. In fact, as part of their policy, they are saying that they'll be able to deliver more to regional pharmacies. But we're just very sceptical of their sincerity in delivering that because they haven't been genuinely consulting with the sector and with the people will be affected by it. So, we think they should come back to the negotiating table, work with the pharmacists, resolve these issues in the national interest, make sure these services are not denied to remote and regional communities, which they will be if the government proceeds with its policy.
STEFANOVIC: The Business Council of Australia is warning today on migration, arguing a lack of housing shouldn't be made a "scapegoat" for reducing numbers because we could lose out on talent. The Opposition has argued migration's too high. So where do you sit on that commentary from the BCA this morning?
PATERSON: I'm very supportive of migration to Australia which helped build this country, but the pace and the rate of that migration is absolutely a legitimate issue for public debate and the impact that has on services into our community is also very legitimate, particularly housing. Frankly, I thought this was a particularly tone deaf contribution from the business community today, suggesting that the only numbers that matter were the permanent migration program and not the temporary workers, students who are coming here right now. Because we know they are coming in in extraordinary numbers and by the end of this year, I've been told by people in the industry it's going to be eye wateringly high numbers, perhaps the largest ever on record. So, for the business community to just dismiss the impacts of that on people's rent, on people's mortgages, on their ability to get in the housing market is dangerously out of touch for them. And I think they have to recognise that we are not providing enough housing to Australians, and we need to get on with that task if we want to make sure we can welcome migrants.
STEFANOVIC: James Paterson, talk to you soon.
ENDS
