Senator TAMBLING (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Aged Care.) (3:43 PM) —The ranting and raving by the Labor Party today is nothing short of opportunistic, hypocritical, destructive and insulting. Let me get into some details, because this false indignation by the Labor Party needs to be brought to attention. The Labor Party has a very short memory. The legislation relating to these changes to the PBAC passed through this Senate on 7 December last year with Labor Party support. It was brought forward and the composition of the new committee was made very clear and was part of that debate. When I say `opportunistic' and `hypocritical', the conversation has unfortunately centred on one very credible new member of the board, Mr Pat Clear, whom the Labor Party previously appointed to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority, the pricing authority itself.

Senator Crowley —A different committee.

Senator TAMBLING —`Different committee,' said Senator Crowley over there, yet it is the one that fixes the prices. The Labor Party is prepared to do deals on prices in some of these areas. Let us look at the credibility of the new PBAC. Ten members have so far been appointed: Mr Neil Anderson, a community pharmacist and a former member; Associate Professor Robert Carter, a health economist from Melbourne; Professor Terry Campbell, Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, a very eminent person; and I have already mentioned Mr Pat Clear, who is a person with wide experience in the industry. Yes, the government makes no apology whatsoever for that. There is also Associate Professor Andrea Mant, of the School of Medicine of the University of New South Wales and a former member of the PBAC's drug utilisation commission; Professor Alasdair Millar, a physician and clinical pharmacologist at Royal Perth Hospital; Dr Stephen Phillips, a general practitioner of Queensland and a previous member of the ABC; Professor Lloyd Sansom, who will be the chair, and is the just retired head of the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences at the University of South Australia; Dr Anne Tonkin, a clinical pharmacologist from South Australia; and Professor David Wilkinson, who has special expertise in the rural health areas. They are all eminent people. What a destructive and insulting attack by the Labor Party today on the credibility of those fine people.

We need to look very carefully at why the Labor Party is jumping when it did not mention any of this in early December, when the legislation was before us. There are a number of members whose former contribution to the PBAC I recognise. Nobody is attacking anyone's credibility. One reason for the very significant changes arose from the fact that four of the members of the previous committee had been honoured for a total of 68 years. It is not a matter of credibility. The fact is that the Labor Party reappointed a number of those people. Professor Birkett, the retired chair, had been there for 17 years. There were others: one had been there for 27 years, one for 12 years and two for eight years. Rotation is needed to get credibility in this very important area.

A couple of those people, who may well have been reapproached as part of this consideration, have become indignant and very disgruntled because an industry person—one person out of 12—has been selected. Importantly, that person is no longer directly involved with the industry, which is what Dr Wooldridge and others have said. The Labor Party now attacks the appointment of Mr Pat Clear, when Labor itself appointed Mr Clear to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority. It is very disturbing. We sought nominations from some 17 professional organisations, who put forward a wide range of names and views.

Let me sum up the Celebrex issue. I refer the Labor Party to representations from Dr Carmen Lawrence and Martin Ferguson, and I am sure there were many others. I would love to go through the files and see whether Senator Crowley made any representations on behalf of her constituents who are suffering. Their issues have now been very properly addressed. Celebrex is an important medicine. Certainly the costings have blown out beyond our initial expectations, but that is because of need and the prescribing issues of the GPs. (Time expired)