Election commission

• So who is the target audience for each case, what are their key messages, and how effective will they be?
• When I look at the “yes” and “no” case pamphlets, there are aspects of each that stand out.

Battle of the pamphlets

• Moreover, many are recognisable names, such as Rachel Perkins, Patrick Dodson, and Eddie Betts.
• Their likeability and familiarity also helps put the point across to readers in a more compelling way.
• Like the “yes” case, the “no” case substitutes the real question voters are being posed with another, more straightforward one.
• So, voters will ask themselves if the experts possess the expertise needed to provide the advice to vote “yes”.

The case for ‘yes’

• Understanding a subject and knowing what you are doing – that is, competence – enhances your credibility.
• The case concerned a company suspected of having exposed its workforce to carcinogenic chemicals.
• In this case, where the arguments put forward were difficult to understand, it was his expertise as a professor that proved decisive.
• It is hardly surprising, then, that experts are used in the “yes” case.

The case for ‘no’

• In other words, the authors of the “no” case assume voters do not know how to judge whether the Voice will be a good or a bad thing, and may not consider much other information than this particular pamphlet.
• You can test this yourself at work by making a simple request to people queuing to use a photocopier:
  Excuse me, I have five pages – may I use the photocopier?
• Excuse me, I have five pages – may I use the photocopier?
• In that case, almost everybody accedes.

• Australia’s laws for the financing of national elections are the least developed of any comparable country.
• In that time, other nations, and most Australian states, have modernised and tightened their laws.
• Read more:
  Sweeping election donation and spending reforms recommended by parliamentary committee

Current rules

• Then, as now, they involve some public disclosure of donations, plus public funding for parties or candidates that receive over 4% of the vote.
• Public funding is “clean money”, to defray the cost of electioneering.
• The disclosure net has widened, particularly under the last Coalition government, to cover all sorts of lobby groups that electioneer.
• Without limits on spending or donations, it has acted more like bankable seed funding than an incentive to avoid big and possibly dodgy donations.

Proposed reforms

• In doing so, they approximate Canada’s system, the most comprehensively regulated of our liberal-egalitarian democratic cousins.
• The report recommends that gifts over $1,000 a year to a party – or to a lobby group for electioneering – be disclosed.
• As with spending limits, no dollar amount is yet proposed.
• Taxpayers struggling with the burgeoning cost of living can but hope public funding does not swell to the $8+ per vote enjoyed by ACT parties.

Political prospects

• Much needs to be thrashed out over the rest of the year.
• Whatever bill the government ultimately proposes to the Senate will require the Greens’ and crossbench support, or opposition backing.
• However, they also want concessions to “recognise barriers” to independent candidates (who lack party infrastructure and nationwide branding) and new parties.
• Yet, to be lasting, reform should also attract a broad array of parties and even lobby groups.

• Thai voters spoke nervously of their democratic aspirations and allowed a military-led government into power.
• Now, after four years of a functioning parliamentary democracy, Thai voters have roared.
• With nearly all votes counted in Sunday’s parliamentary election, they have resoundingly rejected the junta and its successor military-proxy parties.

Will this usher in a democratic spring?

• Move Forward has a similar leader in the Harvard-educated former businessman Pita Limjaroenrat – someone who is both well-educated and business-minded.
• Democratic institutions have taken a battering in the region in recent years, with Myanmar’s 2021 coup and Cambodia’s turn to increasingly autocratic rule under Hun Sen.
• Read more:
  'This country belongs to the people': why young Thais are no longer afraid to take on the monarchy

But obstacles remain

• If this were to occur, they would be a minority government, unable to pass laws without opposition support, and subject to no-confidence motions.
• Would Pheu Thai try to elevate Paetongtarn - the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra – into the role?
• The chances of both parties forming a working coalition would be strengthened if they could bring Bhumjaithai into the government.
• Bhumjaithai’s leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, the current health minister and a cannabis advocate, has insisted that changing Thailand’s cannabis law is non-negotiable for his party.

Could a ‘judicial coup’ derail negotiations?

• There are strong precedents for this, as previous progressive parties have been dissolved through court rulings – a misfortune yet to befall any of the conservative parties.
• Pita is currently facing a lawsuit related to his possession of shares in a media company.
• This means the joint sitting of parliament should happen faster and a coalition will soon emerge.

• This change is expected to halve the cost of prescriptions for six million Australians.
• take advice around medicine supply and medicine shortages from our medicines authorities rather than the pharmacy lobby group.
• This government is using its political capital to push health reform forward and doesn’t seem afraid to ruffle a few feathers.

What is the Pharmacy Guild of Australia?

• It acts like a union for community pharmacy (also known as chemists) owners.
• It provides resources to help pharmacists improve their small businesses, but most of its membership value comes from advocating for community pharmacy owners.
• Known as Community Pharmacy Agreements, the first was signed in 1990, while the most recent seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement was signed in 2020.

How does the guild wield its power?

• It has a reputation for shaping government health policy envied by many a health care peak body.
• The guild also takes a more direct approach to influencing government policy.
• The Australian Electoral Commission reported the guild was the 13th largest political donor in 2021–22, donating $578,000 to political parties across 88 separate donations.

What policies has the guild influenced?

• The guild convinced the government to provide community pharmacies and pharmaceutical wholesalers with an extra $225 million in the 2017–18 budget because prescription volumes were lower than expected within the sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement.
• Read more:
  What is the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and why does it wield so much power?

What are the Pharmacy Location Rules?

• The Pharmacy Location Rules are an agreement between the Australian government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
• The Pharmacy Location Rules do not allow new pharmacies to open within 1.5 kilometres or 10 kilometres of an existing pharmacy depending on the location, distance to the nearest pharmacy, and the number of supermarkets and medical practitioners in the area.
• The Pharmacy Location Rules were introduced in the first Community Pharmacy Agreement to help larger pharmacies generate efficiencies and profit through scale.
• Upon further lobbying, the Pharmacy Location Rules sunset clause was removed after the guild formed a Pharmacy Compact with the government in 2017.

Pharmacy policies that benefit consumers

• Community pharmacists are increasingly providing services traditionally delivered by GPs.
• This push towards greater scope of practice is embedded in the current and prior Community Pharmacy Agreements.
• It outlined ways to improve pharmacy competition in a government submission, which included removing Pharmacy Location Rules and getting pharmacies to compete on medicine prices through discounting.

What does this all mean for patients?

• Savings will be used to further expand the scope of practice for pharmacists, potentially informed by a National Scope of Practice Review to start in 2023.
• It has already canvassed 2,500 “voters” across Australia on the budget proposal.
• In the coming whirlwind of power struggles, wouldn’t it be nice if the government and providers worked together to put the patient first?