Mrs HULL (5:23 PM) —I rise to support the many community pharmacies spread across the electorate of Riverina. I have been an avid supporter of our community pharmacies for some time and I am opposed to any attempts to see community pharmacies enter into the major retailing outlets, such as Woolworths and Coles. For Woolworths and Coles to be able to open pharmacies in their supermarkets is not conducive to having a regular, effective and important education process on the use of pharmaceuticals. There must be a healthy respect for pharmacy. If a person does not have that respect and is dispensing many other products, we will not have created what is required in order to see pharmacy move forward in the future.

Sometimes the work and valuable services provided by community pharmacists may be taken for granted, not by those who use these services but by those removed from our communities. Do we stop and think about the work they do and the services they provide? Many of these services are free of charge. Pharmacies in my electorate provide free home deliveries to the elderly. If we remove this valuable service it will limit the independence of the elderly and ultimately place a greater burden on the health care system. Pharmacies provide subsidised Webster packing services—the incorrect use of medicine places a great burden on the PBS and on our health care system. Basically, pharmacies provide a valuable source for dispensing medicines and also valuable training in how medicines need to be used, along with the respect that pharmacy deserves. Many pharmacies are Diabetes Australia subagents, providing counselling and diabetes management to customers for absolutely no remuneration. Pharmacists provide many services to the public for which they are not reimbursed, such as counselling about medications and self-limiting conditions, blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol level monitoring. These activities are carried out by community pharmacists in rural and regional towns every day and they assist in improving the health of the average Australian, particularly the average rural Australian.

Rural Australians require the services of pharmacies. Rural Australians require the dedicated services of pharmacists because many of our communities have little or no GP services. So your pharmacist is the person at the front end who is the first port of call for many country people. Dismantling the current system of pharmacies will, I believe, have an impact on rural and regional people and in the end will have an impact on taxpayers.

As I have said, local pharmacies provide many services that are not profitable. Pharmacists choose customer and patient care over their bottom line. Would retail chains, such as Woolworths and Coles, place greater importance on patient care than on the return to shareholders? That is one of the major questions that needs to be asked. I have concerns about the push to limit full-line wholesalers of pharmaceuticals. Again it will be country people who will be disadvantaged if short-line wholesalers are the preferred distributors of pharmaceuticals. The cost associated with delivery and storage of cold-chain pharmaceuticals would be absolutely prohibitive if this cost had to be borne by local pharmacists. I think that is something that we need to seriously consider.

In rural communities pharmacists, as I said, are the first point of contact due to the limited number of general practitioners. Again, if the push for deregulation of this industry goes ahead then it will be our rural communities that will suffer. The Australian government has supported community pharmacies for years and it welcomes the valuable contribution they make to communities throughout Australia. I urge all the members of the House to throw their full weight behind community pharmacies to ensure that we do not let retail outlets—(Time expired)

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. IR Causley)—Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.