Just when I thought I couldn't find anything to fire up about sufficiently to require a blog...
Govt considers scrapping FTA drug safeguard
The acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile says the Government will consider reviewing a Labor amendment in the US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) designed to protect drug prices in Australia.
The powerful US pharmaceutical lobby wants the removal of the clause aimed at protecting cheaper generic drugs.
The Opposition insisted on the provision in last-minute negotiations over the trade deal in 2004.
Mr Vaile has told AM that Australia will not consider changing the clause unless the US can prove its case.
"Now I am sure that the American side, particularly industry in America, would like to have a discussion about the way those amendments, and the provision of those amendments are operating," he said.
"But the point needs to be made that they would have to prove that those amendments are being commercially detrimental, which we don't believe they are."
Australia's deal with the United States for a Free Trade Agreement is up for review in March.
from ABC News Online
Mother FUCKERS. And not because generic drugs provide medicine for those who need it the most. Not because generic drugs save us billions of dollars a year. Not because pharmaceutical companies are the most evil of all evil bastards. I'm fired up because IT WAS LATHAM'S IDEA DAMN IT.
It was political genius, back in 2004 everyone wanted to know if Latham and Labor supported the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. And he was umming and aahing, saying Labor wouldn't support a deal 'without sugar'. Then the deal comes without sugar, but the political consequences of blocking the FTA are too big. Latham was already seen as weak on the U.S Alliance, to block the FTA would have ruined his bid for PM. So, just when everybody is expecting him to lay down... BAM!@ Amendments! Two of them! One for local content on TV, and the other for the PBS! Floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee! Tommy is aroused! Howard is gobsmacked, and Latham boosts his poll numbers. Perhaps the finest moment of his political career.
Perhaps the greatest day of my life.
And then you fuckers re-elect Howard. Now, the only remaining shred of my dreams, the only remnant of the beauty that was Mark Latham - Future Prime Minister, will soon be torn away by Mark Vaile and his PBS stormtroopers. So I'm going to do the only thing I know how to.
(It's Mark Vaile)(That's a penis on his head)
(How bad am I at drawing circles)
17 comments:
That man in the penis cat suit is hot.
Oh shit when they bring the GST in all the poor people are going to be so much worse off, the Howard government is breaking down the egalitarian ladder that makes up Australian society...hang on the GST is already here and the apocalypse hasn't come, maybe the government isn't trying to disadvantage Australians with all the new laws they're putting through...but maybe I'm not being paranoid enough.
did you actually read the post
no, I just go around to random blogs and post unrelated comments
maybe you should spend less time looking up words like egalitarian (i don't know how you can have an egalitarian ladder considering only one person can use it at once), and more time reading. but hey, if you want to argue about the GST, that's cool. i'll start.
i have no problems with the GST, consumption tax makes me hot. but the very nature of a 10% flat tax on goods and services means it impacts upon the poor more than the rich. add that to the IR reform that removes some of the most basic protections and awards for the working poor, and the failure of the government to significantally reduce income tax rates after the GST was introduced, and you've got more than a few people being screwed.
and here's another thing - even if poor people were 'so much worse off' (which they're not - yet), i doubt you'd hear about it. not because of your lack of comprehension skills, but because in 2004 21% of australians were surviving on less than $400 a week - $31 less than the minimum wage. i don't want to sound like a prick - but i'm pretty sure you didn't hear about that. and i'm also going to take a stab in the dark and say even if you HAD heard it, you wouldn't give a shit.
My comment was not about the GST, it was meant to highlight the fact that when new legislation comes in everybody becomes panic merchants, thinking that the government is trying to screw somebody over. The GST was met with the same cynisism as the new laws currently being passed, yet, as you agree, it didn't end up in the division of classes.
You're right I did not know that in 2004 21% of Australians were surviving on less than $400 a week. However that figure means little on its own. Not only is it not compared to figures from other years but plenty of other factors contribute to the impact of living off any dollar amount income, including inflation and interest rates.
Why wouldn't I give a shit? Assuming I didn't hear about that figure wasn't being a prick but assuming I have no compassion for people worse off than myself was.
P.S. I didn't have to look up the word egalitarian. Would a cargo net have been more to your liking?
This isn't new legislation - it's about removing a legislated safeguard that ensures affordable medicine. i don't see a problem being cynical about that. i don't see a problem with being cynical about every single piece of legislation from every single level of government in the country. cynicism from the public, the opposition and the media means governments are held to account, that they are forced to provide evidence and make a case for change. it's checks and balances, democracy in work, and it rocks.
The figure means a lot on its own. It means that in 2004, 21% of Australians were living under the minimum wage. i'm not using it to make a wider point about their quality of life, or whether a person can live off that. i'm just saying that the reason you didn't hear about it, the reason you don't think the apocolypse was upon us, was because it was about the poor, and nobody in power gives a shit about the poor. poor people don't set political agendas or make headlines. they don't lobby governments for change like the trade unions or the business councils. they don't have their own political party like the environmental/hippy movement. that study i got the 21% figure from was the first government survey of poverty for THIRTY years.
i assumed you had a thing against the poor because they were the only example you used to whinge about cynicism. i think there's better ways to argue your point than having a go at people who try to draw attention to the plight of society's most disadvantaged.
The reason you can certainly meet tax reforms with cynicism is the same as why you can meet THIS proposed reform with cynicism.
Money.
Tax has almost never, ever, ever been reduced - and even if the GST promised to do that, it just may achieve something on paper that benefits no-one but the government.
You will so rarely see a tax abolished, that the possibility has less credibility than the Loch Ness Monster.
Now apart from the GST - how would removing free trade with regard to medicine's benefit the government?
Well, any drug coming from the states, you can bet your left testicle there will be a nice hefty tariff on it.
So, instead of a 10% slice of the pie on generic medications, a nice 40% slice is more attractive to [whoever the hell has their name on the door of the PM's office... it doesn't matter which party you pledge allegiance to).
Now - if the government said the extra cash from tariff's would be used to subsidise Medicare, cost of drugs then great!
But let's face it - they wouldn't do it. Any subsidy at all would be a token gesture aimed at gaining public approval for their latest cash-grab-initiative.
doesn't a free trade agreement mean that you don't tax the shit out of products from a given country if they won't tax the shit out of your products in their country?
and I could be wrong again but I don't think the government gets to spend any extra tax money they have on themselves
Not touching this one.
A phrase Garry Glitter was oblivious to.
skeletor it's not about removing free trade in regards to medicine, it's about removing cheap generic drugs (the same as those sold by large pharmaceutical companies, but a few times cheaper) from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which would force the Australian Government to buy the higher-priced 'brand' name pharmaceuticals.
there are no tariffs on medicine. the government buys large quantities of medicine on behalf of all australians, and they are distributed via the PBS. if there were tariffs on medicine, the government would be taxing itself.
Sorry - didn't mean Free Trade with regard to trading with the US, rather keeping trade open for free market competition (ie. locally made drugs, or those from other countries). Meaning choice apart from US drugs alone.
Currently we have effective, and for the most part affordable generic drugs.
The only reason to change, would be because of pressure from the US (why give in? to kiss ass?) or economic gain.
As monopoly so rarely benefits consumers (in fact, isn't it illegal in some cases?), I doubt anyone in Australia except the gov would really gain anything.
Justified cynicism, IMO.
I think we should keep the generic drugs.
skeletor, you are a shemale who appears to know absolutely nothing about anything
try digging up skeletor
Wow, totally, amazing, excellent point.
So explain it to me, then, wanker.
If we currently have generic drugs available, for what reason would anyone in Australia want that to change?
Because, you wanker, my butler tried to fellate your mother unbeknownst to him that she had a 19" black penis grafted on down there.
If it wasnt for the highly illegal work she hired him for, I would fucking sue your arse.
You mothers shaft came close to killing him.
Not on skeletor you wanker. I don't care if it is your mothers bas mitzvah, you put my employee in danger.
No, I meant explain the true state of generic medications with regard to US influence as stated in the article - seeing as I apparently don't know anything about it.
... as might be the purpose of a discussion/comments thread on a blog concerning such a subject.
However, if instead you do feel the need to put the results of either an overly-active/wishful imagination, or problematic childhood into writing; I suggest: C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE
-for any further comments like your last.
I guarantee they will reach everyone who's interested.
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