The Government needs to ensure there is a level playing field when it comes to Supermarkets and Farmers.
At the Senate Inquiry into Supermarket practices I was surprised to hear that some Farmers cannot speak to each other about the prices they are paid by the big Supermarkets.
That was a surprise as I always thought that regardless of which party was in power, the Australian government would promote transparency when it came to pricing. I fail to see why Coles and Woolworths are able to know the prices they give to individual farmers but farmers themselves can’t know this information.
This doesn’t apply in all sectors as there are transparent price indicators for the beef industry for example.
I was also surprised to hear that permission needs to be granted by the ACCC to start a cooperative.
It certainly doesn’t seem like a level playing field to me.
Community Affairs Legislation Committee
15/02/2024
Estimates
HEALTH AND AGED CARE PORTFOLIO
Department of Health and Aged Care
Senator RENNICK: Okay. Professor Skerritt has now moved on to work for Medicines Australia. Is there an issue with regard to a bureaucrat moving into the private sector so quickly after effectively being paid by big pharma through the TGA? Is there also a conflict with the TGA approving medicines/drugs and then also being responsible for looking at the injuries of those medicines/drugs, given that they might not want to acknowledge that they might have missed something in the actual approval process?
Prof. Lawler : Thanks for the question.
Senator RENNICK: It’s not really a question for you, because you work for the TGA, so you’re clearly conflicted as it is.
Prof. Lawler : I work for the department.
Senator RENNICK: TGA is later tonight. TGA report to the health department, so it’s a question for the health department.
CHAIR: Professor Lawler, please respond.
Prof. Lawler : If I could just be clear on the last point: I don’t work for the TGA. I’m a deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care. The TGA is one of the areas under my responsibility.
Senator RENNICK: Okay, fine. I apologise.
CHAIR: I need to rotate the call.
Senator RENNICK: Are we going to answer that question first?
Mr Comley : I think we’ve covered this issue of the conflict of interest or lack of conflict of interest of Professor Skerritt. There are guidelines about what a former public servant can do in a lobbying capacity. There is no prohibition on a public servant moving into an area in which they have expertise in the private sector.
Senator RENNICK: What about the conflict of interest?
CHAIR: Senator Roberts covered this before.
Senator RENNICK: I’ll pick up where Senator Roberts was corrected before.
CHAIR: This is your last question, Senator Rennick.
Senator RENNICK: Professor Skerritt clearly said in this room that the lipids in the vaccines were the same as the lipids in a steak. That is not true. In their own TGA report, they say that these lipids are novel lipids. They are positively charged lipids. I’m happy to table this document. Positively charged lipids are toxic to the body. That was never made clear by Professor Skerritt two years ago, when I raised that issue. There were comments made before about not being able to comment on his performance. As senators, we are in a house of review and we are able to comment on the performance of bureaucrats. I’ll leave that as a comment.
CHAIR: This isn’t really the forum for comments, Senator Rennick, so I do ask that next time you have the call you direct things as questions to witnesses at the table—
Senator RENNICK: I’m more than happy to, Chair.
