Hide Rodney: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
Hide Rodney: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8178] 
RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 Let us talk about consumers for a change rather than suppliers. We want to make it cheaper for New Zealanders to get prescribed medicines and to enable them to buy over-the-counter medicines like cough mixtures and flu tablets more cheaply. We can all agree that that is a good goal but Part 9 still provides a privileged position for pharmacists with regard to pharmacy ownership. Despite 15 years of attempts to deregulate and open up the ownership of pharmacies the monopoly provisions continue. I still cannot believe that we in this country deliver that privilege to 931 pharmacists rather than concentrate on supplying the best service to customers particularly to those people who want low-priced drugs—children and the elderly who are the ones most in need of them. 
No other professional body in New Zealand has that kind of protection. Any one of us can own a doctors’ surgery or a drug warehouse but only a pharmacist can own a pharmacy. That is wrong because it creates an artificial monopoly that jacks up prices and lowers the level of service. I ask the Government to support my amendment that deregulates the ownership of pharmacies in New Zealand because that will provide a better service and lower-cost drugs. 
I tell Government members that I am not a lone voice in saying that. The Consumers Institute hardly a bastion of right-ACT thinking says that the current privileged and protected status of chemists shops prevents consumers from benefiting from lower prices and extended operating hours. Government agencies ranging from the Ministry of Health to Treasury the police and Te Puni Kokiri all say we should get rid of the pharmacists’ monopoly and that is what my amendment does. It removes the ownership provisions and it ends the privileged status of chemists. 
Of course dispensing and selling medicines requires high professional standards and those will be retained. A licensed pharmacist will always be required to operate a pharmacy. No matter who owns the pharmacy a licensed pharmacist will always be there. My amendment contains a number of consequential amendments that are required once the ownership restrictions found in new sections 55A to 55G inserted by clause 252 of the bill are removed. But those are technical details. I hope the Committee sees that this amendment of the bill is comprehensive. 
It is time that we stood up for the consumers in all of this. My amendment will answer the health Minister’s own concerns. The Minister of Health was quoted last month in the  
New Zealand Doctor  
as follows: “If pharmacists just sold things related to health care it wouldn’t be so offensive but they run Lotto outlets they sell cameras gifts and you name it. They’ve turned themselves into retailers of anything they like but they’re opposed to other retailers having a pharmacy outlet in their organisation.” I agree with the Minister. On top of that I say that a pharmacy located within a supermarket will deliver cheaper medicines to lower-income New Zealanders at a venue where and at times when they can access them. 
I have another quote from the Minister of Health again from the same publication: “Everyone knows it is a nonsense. As long as you’ve got a pharmacist dispensing that’s what’s important not who owns the building.” I find myself at times agreeing with Annette King and I agree with her on this matter. Let us end this ridiculous anomaly. I urge Government members to vote— 
Hon Annette King 
: What about those ones? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The National Party is all right. I urge the Labour Party to vote for working people for our elderly and for our young people so that they can access low-priced drugs in extended hours. Let this Parliament stop protecting 931 privileged suppliers who have a monopoly. We have done so everywhere else. I say to the Minister that we even did that for the dental nurses. 
Hon Annette King 
: They were never regulated; it was the dentists. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The dentists; I am sorry. We did it for the dentists and the consumer benefited from that. We have done it elsewhere in the economy. Let us in this Committee fix this monopoly tonight. I ask members to please vote for my amendment.