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About 200 pharmacists clad in white coats shouted obscenities at the government and heckled the prime minister in parliament, just three days after Labor struck a peace deal with the Pharmacy Guild over its 60-day prescription policy.
A contingent of pharmacists stormed out of question time in the House of Representatives in a chorus of jeers and obscenities on Monday – some yelling abuse and making hand gestures towards the government – when Health Minister Mark Butler stood up to spruik the government’s cheaper medicine policy.
Several hundred pharmacists protested outside Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.Credit: AAP/Mick Tsikas
The speaker of the house, Milton Dick, said he would review claims they abused parliamentary staff on their way out of the building.
Labor’s 60-day script policy, which allows consumers to get two months’ supply of common medicine with one prescription, started last Friday despite fierce opposition from pharmacies, which will lose income from government dispensing fees.
The Pharmacy Guild, which represents pharmacy owners, last week dropped its scare campaign – which has involved a media blitz and putting posters of Anthony Albanese in pharmacy windows – after Butler agreed to bring forward the next five-year pharmacy funding agreement from July 2025 to March 2024.
The guild will push for more funding to compensate for its losses during the confidential negotiations, and the new agreement should be in place by the time the second and third tranche of common medicines becomes available for 60-day scripts in March and September next year.
However, not all pharmacies are satisfied. The group that descended on Canberra in protest on Monday was the Community and Pharmacy Support Group – an independent coalition of pharmacies that is not affiliated with the influential guild.
Speaker of the house, Milton Dick, said he would review footage and determine whether action was required after government minister Tony Burke said parliamentary staff had allegedly been subjected to verbal abuse by some members of the pharmacy group on their way out.
Emil Demyane, a Sydney pharmacy owner and spokesman for the independent pharmacy group, said he was not aware of claims of heckling or inappropriate behaviour.
When asked for his response to the allegations, he said: “If that is true we don’t condone the activity; if it’s coming from the Labor government, then it could be another falsity”.
Demyane also said the group had decided to leave question time of their own accord. “It’s a very emotional time for us … we won’t stop fighting until this is rectified,” he said.
Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley, Nationals leader David Littleproud and opposition health spokesperson Anne Ruston spoke at the rally outside parliament earlier in the day. Throughout question time, Coalition MPs gestured to the pharmacists in the public gallery while accusing Butler of failing to consult them on the policy.
The Coalition has championed pharmacy grievances in parliament and threatened to bring a disallowance motion to veto the policy last month. However, Labor and most of the crossbench ultimately quashed it.
Independent Warringah MP Zali Steggall raised a point of order to accuse the Coalition of supporting the pharmacists’ disorderly behaviour in parliament and called for higher standards.
“I simply say that it is important that we are consistent in this place in how disorderly conduct is treated. And that the encouragement from the opposition for this conduct shows a great disrespect,” she said.
The Pharmacy Guild on Monday also distanced itself from the fracas in parliament.
“Last week the Guild exchanged letters with the government agreeing to pause our public information campaign on 60-day dispensing after an agreement was reached to bring forward the [next pharmacy agreement],” a spokesperson said.
“The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is not and has never been involved with the organisation of events in Canberra today. The Guild remains committed to resolving this matter as soon as possible and encourages the government to do the same.”
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