Page 220 - Week 01 - Thursday, 18 February 1993
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Madam Speaker, our priorities are for the smooth running of the public hospital system; that is why we have moved to introduce the legislation to provide that, despite the best efforts of Mrs Carnell to bring the public health system down. Obviously, Mrs Carnell is not too aware of the complexities of law-smithing. The law-smiths over there have been busy putting this together, but it has not had the same priority as other matters of law that the ACT Government, the Labor Government, has dealt with.
It is my intention, and I am sure many of the Assembly members share my view, that we should fulfil our obligations and commitment to the harmonisation of schedules of drugs and poisons throughout Australia which, as has been said, was given at the Australian Health Ministers Conference in June 1990. As members may know, differences in the scheduling of drugs and poisons between, for example, New South Wales and the ACT have caused some difficulties, and that point has been raised by Mrs Carnell.
One recent example has been drawn to my attention. The National Health and Medical Research Council recommended in March 1990 that terfenadine, a non-sedating antihistamine, be available from pharmacists without a doctor's prescription. This was, of course, desirable so that an antihistamine with minimal effects on motor skills was more readily available to drivers. New South Wales amended its poisons legislation in August 1990 to enable terfenadine in a specified pack size to be purchased from pharmacists without prescriptions. Changes to Territory legislation which included terfenadine among other amendments were introduced on 15 March 1991. Other States introduced similar legislative changes at different times. It was this ongoing problem - ongoing because the National Health and Medical Research Council revises and updates its standard for the uniform scheduling of drugs and poisons twice a year - that prompted all the States and Territories to endorse the principle of harmonisation of schedules of drugs and poisons throughout Australia.
The Bill we are debating today is the first of a package of three which includes the Poisons (Amendment) Bill and the Drugs of Dependence (Amendment) Bill (No. 5). The package of Bills assists in fulfilling the Territory's commitment to the uniform scheduling of drugs and poisons throughout Australia. The Poisons and Drugs (Amendment) Bill adopts by reference Schedules 1 to 8 of the council's standard for the uniform scheduling of drugs and poisons. This approach - adoption by reference - to uniformity of drugs and poisons was adopted in New South Wales in August 1991. Adoption by reference will obviate the need to amend the Poisons and Drugs Act 1978 at frequent intervals because, as I have already mentioned, the standard is revised and updated twice a year by the council. It is this need to amend legislation regularly that has in the past caused delays to the implementation of the council's recommendations in the Territory.
As Mrs Carnell mentioned, the Bill also introduces controls over the most dangerous poisons which are listed in Schedule 7 of the council's standard. It provides for additional controls to be introduced by regulation over the most dangerous of the Schedule 7 poisons - for example, arsenic and strychnine - which the council recommends be available to authorised or licensed persons only for research or industrial and manufacturing purposes. The Bill is an important and essential piece of ACT legislation, and I commend it to you for your adoption.
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