Easy to understand: this was brought in by Fraser’s LNP govt iirc to keep the big end of town and their international backers happy.
From malcolm twitter.
There are news reports today that Australian government officials are concerned that the Trump administration will pressure Australia over its monopsonistic Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which keeps drug prices in Australia lower than they otherwise would be - the PBS does not make drugs eligible for government subsidy unless the price is agreed.
This is not news. big pharma has never liked our PBS. This piece of history from the Obama years and the negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership is from my memoir “A Bigger Picture”
“I became prime minister just as the negotiation of the TPP was concluding in Atlanta and we came under enormous pressure from the Americans to agree to amendments to patent protection for biologics, a new and increasingly important type of drug created by complex biological, as distinct from chemical, processes. The amendments would benefit the immensely influential US pharma lobby but would inevitably be politically damaging for us as an increase in the cost of some drugs in Australia was a likely outcome.
“We were only just getting the China Australia Free Trade Agreement through the parliament in the teeth of furious opposition from the unions and we simply didn’t have the political capital available to have a fight over the TPP too. President Obama called me to press the case and did so with his characteristic quiet charm. But I couldn’t help him; we wouldn’t change our law relating to data protection for biologics. It was political kryptonite for us.
Barack said that meant the TPP could fall over and we’d be blamed. I took a deep breath and quietly replied, ‘Well, Mr President, like you, I think the TPP is vital for our region. But you know, nobody is marching in the streets here saying “Sign the TPP”, but they sure will be marching if they think we’re going to put up the price of drugs on our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Those pharma companies hate our PBS because we use our monopoly buying power to force down prices – but that’s not my problem. Sorry, no can do.’
Barack Obama entirely understood the politics. And he acknowledged he was an unlikely advocate for big pharma. We just moved on to talking about Syria and other security issues. I then gave Andrew Robb (our Trade Minister) authority to stonewall on the issue. ‘Just say “no” to drugs, Andrew,’ I told him.
Our ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, reported to me on 3 October that, following my call with the president, Obama’s National Security Council trade adviser was trying to elevate the issue to one of national security, and was arguing that our standing our ground wouldn’t just put the whole deal but the alliance at risk. We were warned that the atmospherics with the Americans would likely be poisonous if talks collapsed.
Peter Varghese, secretary of DFAT, Julie Bishop our Foreign Minister , Andrew Robb and I talked. We resolved that we would not be spooked by the US pressure and concluded the idea that Australia was standing in the way of the US rebalance in the Asia Pacific was self-serving bunkum. The USA was trying to knock us off one by one on biologics, and Australia was by no means the only TPP party that could not accept eight years. We recognised that if we failed in Atlanta it wouldn’t be because of Australia. So, concluding our position on biologics was both entirely defensible and in our national interest, I instructed our negotiators to hold firm. And we did.
The deal was signed in Atlanta – only to be abandoned a year later by President Trump. But it was a reminder that, especially when it comes to trade, nations – particularly big ones – will ruthlessly pursue their own interests. It was important that at our first encounter, Obama saw that I was just as committed to Australia’s interests as he was to America’s.“
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Dutton would sell us out and the PBS in a second.
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We have been at odds with the US on regulation of trade in health related products, at both the bilateral and multilateral level, in part connected to the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property ( TRIPS) Agreement. Unlike most international Agreements, TRIPS doesn’t have a health exception clause which is a serious flaw in a treaty.
On market access, the US was forever at us to accept blood. Multilaterally, it tried to get spring boarding of pharmaceuticals outlawed. Spring boarding, which we practised, allowed for pharmaceuticals to go on the market as soon as the patent expired .
I wasn’t directly involved in those issues, but I do remember Downer in the Howard Government standing firm when others wanted to get rid of irritants in the bilateral relationship.
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That policy led to Denis Bastos becoming, just in the last 20 years, one of the wealthiest people in Australia.
Another reason why the USA is anti WHO.
Unlike most trade agreements, TRIPS didn’t have a specific clause providing for a special deal for developing or least developing members, whether by way of an exception from some obligations or obligations by developed members.
India used to lead the charge in fighting for special deals allowing India to supply other developing countries, invoking UN/ WHO principles and treaties against TRIPS/ WIPO . Lawyers having a field day giving different interpretations of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
There used to be blood on the floor at TRIPS meetings, complicated by a US head of WIPO stuffing up its finances and being disgraced for other reasons. It ended up that the only cleanskin to run WIPO was an Australian.
There was a clash between UN and WTO treaties, with some papering over the cracks, eventually something got sorted with the Covid pandemic.
But it’s not over and the US will revive the issue bilaterally and multilaterally under Trump trade policy, disregarding its own treaty obligations, UN or other. Revenge if you’ve tweaked Uncle Sam’s tail.
“Frankly terrifying” is how independent Senator David Pocock sees the external national security threat of climate change to Australia.
He’s seen the unreleased report on the risks, and he and progressive independents in the house say it is “recklessly negligent” not to let Australians know as well. The Saturday Paper can reveal that on December 9, a non-sitting day of parliament, the crossbenchers dialled in to a secure meeting to be briefed on the Office of National Intelligence’s (ONI) long-awaited Climate Risk Assessment report. The report was delivered to the government in early 2023.
The Coalition and the Greens were not briefed, nor was the usually bipartisan Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security.
The Greens say the independents are now gagged as to the report’s contents, but it is an issue that will weigh heavily in any negotiations with the cross bench in the event of a hung parliament. This leaves the Greens less informed than the independents on an issue core to the party’s campaign, heading into an election that most reputable polls point to delivering a hung parliament.
“We’re woefully underprepared for what’s coming,” Pocock tells The Saturday Paper. “It’s no surprise that the government has been sitting on this report from the Office of National Intelligence.
“After hustling the government for the last few years, they gave crossbenchers a private briefing on it and it’s frankly terrifying, what our national security agencies are telling us is coming, and government is not acting,” the senator says. “I think it is actually negligence from both of them.”
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Yeah but he’s no Morrison or Dutton…
It’s truly depressing how much influence the right wing media has in this country, and how short ‘our’ attention span has become.
This should be a slam-dunk increased majority.
Instead we’re looking at a hung parliament probably at best. ff’s fs.
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Blaming John Howard is easy - because he was in power 30 years ago. As is blaming any other government or level of government.
It’s an Australian politicians national pastime.
I think the country is past that on a few issues Politicians can influence.
There’s a saying about things needing to get so bad before they are fixed.
I think there are some things in that state in Australia.
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I was blaming Howard when he was still in power. And I still blame him.
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Nick McKenzie does it again. Story about the corruption on Victoria’s Big Build. On 60 minutes tonight. Mick Gatto, the bikies …. Vic state Labor briefed but appears to have done nothing.
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If anyone had any lingering doubts, Peter is deep in rapacious Lady for Trump’s pocket. Private jets all about the place, the nuclear option announced just days after Gina whispered it in his potato hole, pensioners for the mines as a sweetener. Basil Zempilas holding court at her big bash and plots to win back the west.
LNP is the party for you and me. Just checking, you are at least a millionaire aren’t you?
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Trump’s trade policies and a likely hit on Australia’s health policies as an unfair non tariff barrier, are a gift to Albanese in the election campaign.it’s pulled the rug under Dutton, caused division within the Liberal Party.
And if the US goes on to further restrict Australian agricultural exports ( including with bilateral deals with other countries) the Nats would be very nervous.
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Surely an opportunity for the Nats to show their ever faithful constituents how they can also roll up their sleeves and get down in the dirt? Otherwise what are they but Akubra wearing proxies for a party that detests rural Australia?
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Not remotely surprised if it’s true. This Vic Labor government have been highly questionable in some area’s all the way through.
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What are the draw backs to being a bikie? Get to hang out in cool clubhouses, free money, drugs and women, no noise restrictions, bizarrely, on your hog, regularly take over coastal towns for booze ups. It’s Peter Pan stuff. You just have to be a total corrupt carnt. Politicians are envious of bikies.
Having to ride a Harley Davidson is an inherent drawback.
Mind you, it’s possible that the real outlaw motorcycle gangs are less obnoxious and full of ■■■■ than the Harley Owners Groups riders. That crew are so far up their own (often lawyers , corporate types pretending to be tough ) backsides that it’s almost funny.
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There’s that. If they were true blue in today’s climate they’d go back to the Japanese option
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