"I deeply fear that this is going to be an unmitigated disaster"
Timeline:
25 June 2024:
"Labor and the Greens have come up with this proposal that the pharmacists, and only pharmacists, will sell vaping products. You put all these burdens onto pharmacists, if they choose to do it, and are you then expecting that they're going to do it? Why would they? You can't make a profit selling a $25 to $35 product, providing all of that therapeutic advice and doing all that record keeping listed in (6)(a) to (g). It's impossible to do that properly, including—I just want to read this again, and just reflect on this:
… provide professional advice to the patient on alternative cessation supports and therapies, appropriate dose and frequency depending on age, weight and severity of condition, length of treatment, suitable titration, and interactions with other medicines …
Seriously?"
"You should have the review. I suggest you have the review in a month, after the new scheme comes in, rather than in three years, because I think that we'll know it's a dud after a month. It will have failed miserably. You will have people from all over Australia coming into the pharmacy saying, 'I want to buy vapes,' and the pharmacist will say, 'We don't do that.' The more I think about it, you will see a proliferation of signs across community pharmacies all over Australia saying, 'We do not sell vapes.' What are you going to do then? What's plan B? Because you didn't even talk to those people you were expecting to play a key role in relation to this compromise. It's absolutely astounding. I wish you good luck, but I deeply fear that this is going to be an unmitigated disaster and that you will be back in this place in a number of months with plan B, whatever that will be."