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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3433 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

I was elected to this Assembly as a pharmacist, as a proprietor of a small business in this town. I am very proud of that, and, if Mr Berry really believes that somehow this is hurting me, I am happy to debate being a pharmacist and being a small business operator until the cows come home. I think that is something that is very important to this town. Mr Berry has continued to make comments about the famous cough mixture. Here it is. He has denigrated the sinus and hayfever capsules, and the soothing cream, which is in here somewhere too - yes, here it is. We have the dry cough mixture as well. We also have it on every single bag the pharmacy has - "Kate Carnell's Regional Pharmacy", "Kate Carnell's Big Bags" - and every single dispensing label that has ever been put on any prescription in my pharmacy. Guess why, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: It is the law, is it?

MRS CARNELL: It is the law; spot on. It is actually the law for pharmacists to own pharmacies, and it is actually the law for the name of the pharmacist to be on all dispensing labels and to be displayed outside your shop and at all appropriate places. That is what pharmacy practice is about. If Mr Berry had listened to the very short talkback this morning with Elizabeth Jackson, he would have heard that a number of pharmacists rang in. One of them, Pat Develin, rightly made the point that this is absolutely normal pharmacy practice. This is how pharmacy is practised in Australia.

If Mr Berry does not like that, he might want to take some other approach - suggest that pharmacies should change; maybe he can do that. He was Health Minister; maybe he could have made those changes then. But the reality is that this is not about cough mixture or, for that matter, sinus or cold tablets or soothing cream or bags or dispensing labels. It is a straight out-and-out attack by Mr Berry on me because he has not managed to dint the Government in any other way. If there was any capacity for Mr Berry to make a difference, to dint our policy direction, our budget, the approach I have taken to health, the reductions in waiting lists, the increases in - - -

Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The motion is not about dinting Mrs Carnell's performance on health, although I am happy for it to be that. Would you rule on that point of order?

MR SPEAKER: I ask Mrs Carnell to come back to the motion. I think she is doing so.

MRS CARNELL: I will put the cough mixture away too. I thought you would like me to put that away, Mr Speaker. I am happy to get back to the motion. The motion is not about my pharmacy, cough mixture, soothing cream or, for that matter, bags or dispensing labels. The issue before the Assembly today is a code of conduct for all members of this place - something that this side of the house not only supports but has already done for its Ministers. It is not unusual for members of parliament to have had careers before politics - and, hopefully, afterwards. In fact, I am confident that the community generally wants their politicians to have had experiences in their lives other than just being career politicians or party hacks. I think all the information we have from community surveys indicates just that.

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