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Australian Medical Association Limited

ABN 37 008 426 793

42 Macquarie Street, Barton ACT 2600: PO Box 6090, Kingston ACT 2604 Telephone: (02) 6270 5400 Facsimile (02) 6270 5499 Website : http://www.ama.com.au/

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY A TIME TO CELEBRATE THE

ACHIEVEMENTS OF WOMEN IN MEDICINE On the eve of International Women’s Day, AMA President, A\Prof Brian Owler, said the AMA wants to highlight the magnificent achievements of women in medicine, and pay tribute to the profession in the 21st century for its hallmarks of fairness and gender equality. A/Prof Owler said that the medical profession has made huge advances in promoting the careers of women doctors, and is an example for other professions in its efforts to make medical workplaces safe and rewarding for all doctors. “There are more women doctors in the workforce than ever before and, in 2013, there were more female than male medical students in Australia and New Zealand. “Women doctors have reached the peak leadership roles in the profession – in administration, research, training, Colleges, surgery, and general practice. “The AMA has had two recent women Federal Presidents, and women hold and have held senior Federal and State executive positions. The same applies with AMA Doctors in Training and the Australian Medical Students’ Association. “Medicine is a rewarding career for women, and women doctors in Australia are achieving great success.” A/Prof Owler said the AMA does not condone sexual harassment, workplace bullying, or any other intimidating or threatening behaviour towards women doctors in medical workplaces. “We are disturbed by reports today of an alleged ‘scourge of sexual harassment’ in Australian hospitals,” A/Prof Owler said. “This is not my experience or the experience of my colleagues who work in both the public and private hospital systems across the country. “There may be a small number of cases – as is the case in most professions – but there are processes in place to identify and punish any offenders. “The AMA encourages any women doctors who have experienced harassment or bullying to speak up and seek help. The profession will not tolerate sexual harassment in any form in the workplace. “We do not support the reported advice from a senior female doctor that the next generation of female doctors should submit or give in to bullying or sexual advances to protect their careers. “That is reckless and irresponsible advice that does not belong anywhere in contemporary Australian society. “The AMA is proud of the achievements of women doctors and we encourage the increasing feminisation of the medical workforce – and we will do all we can to ensure women have safe and encouraging workplaces and rewarding careers as doctors,” A/Prof Owler said. 7 March 2015 CONTACT: John Flannery 02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761

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Uncomfortable secrecy blights attitudes to trade deal

PETER MARTIN

Why are businessesunenthusiastic about theTrans Pacific Partnership?

Iget that ordinaryAustrali-

ans don’tmuch like the

TransPacificPartnership.

ButAustralian businesses?

The deal is being negotiated

between the 12 Pacific-facing

nations ofAustralia, theUnited

States, Japan, Canada,New

Zealand,Malaysia, Brunei,

Singapore, Chile,Mexico, Peru and

Vietnam.No one outside the

negotiating teams knows exactly

what’s in it because the textwon’t

bemade public until after it is

sealed, possibly at aministers’

meeting inHawaii nextmonth.

Then it’ll be too late forAustralia

to change. That’s theway trade

agreementswork. OurParliament

will be able to vote ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no’’ to

the entire thing, all 20 chapters,

but itwon’t be able to change a

word.

Some of the leaks are alarming.

They includewhatBritishmedical

journalThe Lancet calls an ‘‘unpre-cedented expansion of intellectual

property rights thatwould prolong

monopolies on pharmaceuticals

and reduce access to affordable

and lifesaving genericmedicines’’.

Australia’s Pharmaceutical

Benefits Scheme spends $1 billion

a year on the 10most expensive of

the super-expensive so-called

biologic drugs,manufactured from

living organisms.

In addition to patent protection,

themanufacturers get five years in

which themakers of cheaper

generics are unable to use their

data to prove their alternatives are

safe. TheUSwants to extend the

period to eight years. Deborah

Gleeson, fromLaTrobeUniversity,

says thatwould cost the

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

$205 million a year.

It isn’t to facilitate trade. It’s a

measure to restrict trade. And the

TPP is full of them.

In one part buyers of pharma-

ceutical products (such asAustra-

lia’s PBS)would be restricted in

their ability to offerwhatever price

theywanted to their suppliers

(mainlyUS-ownedpharmaceutic-

al companies), a restriction not

normally thought of as advancing

free trade. In another, evenminor

breaches of copyright (such as

burning a copyrightedDVD for a

friend), would become a criminal

rather than a civil offence.

And outside tribunalswould be

able to adjudicate and impose pen-

alties onAustralian governments

even after their laws had been

found valid byAustralia’s courts. It

would open theway for alcohol

manufacturers to take onAustralia

over laws requiring labelling, food

manufacturers to take onAustralia

over anti-obesity campaigns and

mining companies to sueAustralia

over environmental regulations, as

happens inCanada under the pro-

visions of theNorthAmericanFree

TradeAgreement.

Australian businesses ought to

love theTPP. Theywould get the

ability to take on 11 other govern-

ments in overseas tribunals, and to

the extent that they export intel-

lectual property (Australia is a net

importer) theywould benefit from

the criminalisation of copyright

breaches.

Butwould they actually be able

to sellmuchmore product?

It looks as if theywouldn’t. The

Department of ForeignAffairs and

Trade saidAustralia’smega trade

dealwith theUnitedStates, signed

10 years ago, would boostAustra-

lia’s gross domestic product by

$5.7 billion.However, 10 years on,

theAustralianNationalUniversity

says it has not boosted trade at all.

AUSDepartment ofAgriculture

study says the agricultural com-

ponent of theTPPwill not boost

Australia’s GDPat all.

None ofwhichwouldmatter

much if such agreementsweren’t

so expensive to negotiate and

didn’t create somuch red tape.

TheAustralianChamber of

Commerce and Industrywants the

direct costs of negotiating each

treaty reported toParliament. And

itwants annual assessments of

how they are turning out. Like gov-

ernment spending on roads and on

events such as theOlympicGames,

there are always plenty of fore-

casts of the benefits before the

agreements are signed, but rarely

any follow-up.

It alsowants the ‘‘noodle bowl’’

of overlapping and conflicting

agreements cleaned up.Australia

has 12 free trade agreements, each

with its own compliance rules.

Some involve the same countries,

but the superseded agreements

are never terminated.

Australia hasn’t acceded to the

international treatywhichwould

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require each of its agreements to

be consistentwith each of the

others. TheTPP is the latestwhich

won’t be.

Anunpublished survey ofACCI

members findmost neither under-

stand nor useAustralia’s free trade

agreements. ‘‘Inmy experience,

they have been awaste of time,

particularlyThailand. The paper-

work to qualifywas so erroneous it

wasn’tworth the effort,’’ said one

member.

Where they do try to comply,

their goods are often stopped at

the docks and on the other side

charged the full rate of duty

because the officials don’t know

about them.

The chamber’s submission to

theSenate inquiry into the treaty-

making process is damning. It

wants the secrecy bywhich the

agreements are negotiated opened

up so that community and business

groups are taken into the confid-

ence of the negotiators in real time,

as happens in theUnitedStates.

Itsmost important recommend-

ation is that theProductivityCom-

mission assess theworth of the

agreements as they are being nego-

tiated in real time. Itwould put a

stop tomany of the agreements

being negotiated in our name. It

might even put a stop to theTPP.

PeterMartin is economics editor ofTheAge. Twitter:@1petermartin

Our Parliament will beable to vote ‘‘yes’’ or‘‘no’’ but it won’t beable to change a word.

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Baylis passing refuels euthanasia drug access callTHE funeral of well-knownTerritorian John Baylis will beheld on Thursday.

The voluntary euthanasiacampaigner and motor neurondisease sufferer passed away inpalliative care surrounded byhis wife Jan and his children lastThursday.

Mr Baylis, 83, of HowardSprings will be laid to rest at

3pm, at the Resthaven Chapel,121 Amy Johnson Ave, Marrara.

His passing has promptedrenewed calls from prominentvoluntary euthanasia cam-paigner, Dr Philip Nitschke, forthe decriminalisation of thepossession of euthanasia drug,Nembutal, by the terminally ill.

Speaking from London, ExitDirector Dr Philip Nitschke

said Mr Baylis had arguedpassionately for his right tohave access to this drug.

“Indeed it was only fear oflegal penalties for those heloved that in the end preventedhim from obtaining his own“Peaceful Pill”,” he said.

Mr Baylis was one of the firstmembers of the Motor NeuronNembutal Buyers Club, a group

set up in 2014 by Exit Interna-tional to facilitate the safeacquisition of this drug bysufferers of the devastatingdisease.

“A diagnosis of this disease isone of the commonest reasonsterminally ill people join Exit.Their main concern is how toacquire a reliably lethal druglike Nembutal, so that they have

the option of a peaceful deathwhen their disease worsens,” DrNitschke said.

“While the drug is relativelyeasy to obtain on the internet,the actions of Customs and theFederal Police in enthusiasti-cally pursing elderly and sickpeople seeking this drug, fright-ens many.”� Nitschke case may stall: P5

John Baylis with wife Jan

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Northern Territory NewsTuesday 10/3/2015Page: 3Section: General NewsRegion: Darwin Circulation: 14,595Type: Capital City DailySize: 149.00 sq.cms.Frequency: MTWTFS

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Indigenous funds cuts ‘hurt most vulnerable’By CHRISTOPHER WALSH

ABOUT 50 Aboriginal peoplewill lose their jobs in CentralAustralia and a substance andalcohol abuse program inDarwin under the FederalGovernment’s new indigenousfunding model, which hasallocated only $860 million inspending Australia-wide forthe next financial year againsta promised $4.9 billion overfour years.

There will be job losses fromthe closure of the volatile sub-

stances and drug and alcoholprogram run by Amity Com-munity Services in Darwin.Senate Estimate figures showthat nationally 2345 organis-ations applied for funding butonly 964 were successful underthe Indigenous AdvancementStrategy.

NTCOSS executive direc-tor Wendy Morton said itcould also mean no properdrug and alcohol program forthe Darwin region.

“It’s very disheartening andit’s frustrating and it’s really

hard to understand why they’dmake these decisions,” shesaid. “This is not the area inwhich to make savings. Hittingthose most disadvantaged,most vulnerable and oftenthose in poverty is not the areain which they should be seek-ing to save the money.”

Other indigenous serviceprovider organisations still donot know what funding theywill be allotted; others say theyhave kept existing funding.

But last week the federalHealth department did an-

nounce 112 community-controlled Aboriginal healthorganisations would be having$1.4 billion in fundingextended.

MacDonnell RegionalCouncil president Sid Ander-son said Prime Minister TonyAbbott was directly attackingremote Aboriginal wellbeing.He said the council had beentold it would receive less than66 per cent of its previous bud-get to deliver expanded front-line services in additionalremote communities.

“Tony Abbott’s foray intoindigenous affairs proposesMacDonnell Regional Councilshould expand its youth devel-opment services from nine to12 remote indigenous com-munities for only 8 per cent ofits current budget,” he said. “IfTony Abbott says he wants tohelp Aboriginal people, whyhas he just cut 51 indigenousjobs from our communities?”

NT Labor called on ChiefMinister Adam Giles to fightthe Federal Government formore funding.

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FRUSTRATED health insurance customers are flocking to a new campaign that aims to cut the cost of cover.

The Big Health Insurance Switch launched last week and with 45,000 people signed up, has already exceeded its target.

The campaign, a partnershipbetween consumer network

One Big Switch and News Corp Australia, aims to use people power to negotiate with private health funds to unlock an exclusive health insurance deal.

One Big Switch spokesmanJoel Gibson says the huge response reflects the level of frustration about rising health insurance costs.

Premiums will shoot up byan average 6.18 per cent onApril 1 after the FederalGovernment approved insurers’ requests for another hefty rise.

“(Demand has) exceeded our expectations, and we are well on track to 50,000 (campaign members) hopefully

some time in the next week, Gibson says.

“If people keep spreading theword, we could get close to 100,000.

The campaign is free to joinand there is no obligation to accept any offer that is presented. More details are at moneysaverhq.com.au.

Insurance campaign attracts healthy following

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With health insurance rates about tojump, it’s time to check whether yourpolicy still meets your needs.IF you’re one of the 13 million Aussies with private health insurance, we have some bad news: health insurers are about to jack up their premiums again.

On April 1, premiums acrossthe industry will increase by an average of 6.18 per cent (more than three times the rate of inflation), costing a typical family an extra $280 a year on top of what’s already a significant expense.

Announcing the increase, Health Minister Sussan Ley encouraged all healthinsurance customers to “shop around to get the best deal”, and we agree. There are definitely savings to be had.

But health insurance is a complex area and it can be hard to work out what’s essential and what can be cut.

To help clear thingsup, here we’ve outlined some of the most important things to consider, depending on your stage of life.

YOUNG, SINGLE AND READY TO MINGLEIf you’re young, fit, healthy and not

planning a family, you can enjoy significant savings by opting for just basic hospital and extras cover.

Basic

hospital gives you a wide range of treatment options in the event of an emergency, but you won’t fork out for treatments you’re unlikely to need.

And while the level of extrasyou need depends on yoursituation, some combination of basic dental, optical and physio will usually cater for most young people. You might even find you don’t need extras cover.

If you’re under 31,there is avalid argument for not having private cover at all.

GROWING UP AND STARTING A FAMILYAs you become older and

wiser, private health insurance becomes more important. This is especially true for couples planning to start a family who want the peace of mind of choosing their hospital and healthcareprofessionals.

You may alsowish to better

protect yourself against theunexpected or save on out-of-pocketexpensesthroughimproved extrascover – things such as obstetrics and IVF being obvious inclusions.

Plus, there are financial implications for not taking out cover as you get older.

The government’s LifetimeHealth Cover initiative means

people who don’t take out private hospital cover by theJuly 1 after their 31stbirthday haveto pay an extra2 per cent on theirpremiums forevery yearthey’re agedover 30.

And people earning more than $90,000 a year who don’t have private health insurance will be whacked with the Medicare Levy Surcharge at

tax time, which ranges from 1 to 1.5 per cent.

FAMILIESFrom dentisttrips to late-nightdashes tothe doctor,kids are aconstant

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cause ofexpensive

medical bills.Private health

insurance can help familiessave significantly on the out-of-

OTHER CONSIDERATIONSWe have a great public healthsystem in Australia with Medicare, but private health insurance gives you increased choice of care and greater peace of mind, and can providesignificant savings on services Medicare doesn’t cover.

But it’s also a significant expense. Check waiting periods when you upgrade your policy

or switch funds, and be smartabout using affiliated

care providers.

pocket expenses associatedwith raising kids, and also provide more treatment optionsif things go wrong.

Consolidated family covermeans that everything is in the one place and

everyone isproperlyprotected.

Somecouplespolicies

includeextras for

the kids until they’re 18, so see which ones represent the best value for your family.

EMPTY NESTERS AND RETIREESAge does wear out the body and you certainly don’t bounce backlike you did as a youngster. Add declining potential income and senior Australians can’t afford a major medical event to drain their retirement.

That translates into robustprivate health insurance toward the top levels of cover.

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Not such a superidea,MrHockey

PaulKeating

Proposals floated by the

Treasurer, JoeHockey, to

breach the principle of

‘‘preservation’’ of super-

annuation accumulations for pur-

poses such as housing deposits

would destroy universal retire-

ment savings at its core.

The key towealth accumulation

in retirement savings is compound

earnings. It is the earnings on the

earnings plus newweekly capital

commitments that allow superan-

nuation accumulations to roughly

double every seven to eight years.

Such growth in the asset base

could not happen if peoplewere

permitted to take funds for con-

venience, thereby diminishing the

asset pool and its capacity to com-

pound. Thiswould especially be

the case for younger homebuyers

whowould typically have a relat-

ivelymodest pool of superannu-

ation savings fromwhich to draw.

In fact, anymeaningful housing

deposit taken from the accumu-

lated savings of younger savers

would effectively eliminate or near

eliminate the base fromwhich the

important compoundingwould

otherwise occur.

Breakingwhat is nowanational

consensus on the principle of pre-

servation,where savings cannot be

drawndown till age 55,would

amount to thewilful destruction of

one of the best retirement systems

in theworld.

This idea is certainly not an in-

novation and is not responsible

enough even to be considered a

thought bubble.

TheLiberals have always hated

national superannuation for the

broadworkforce. Andmandatory

superannuation gets right up their

nose. Their objection to superan-

nuation is ideological.

Theywould prefer to see broad

increments to nationalwealth in

such places as stockmarkets accu-

mulate only to their top end

wealthy constituency. In other

words, superannuation, limited as

it used to be before 1985 – for the

top end of industry and the public

service only.

This iswhy theLiberals have

jammed the shift in superannu-

ation at 9.5 per cent ofwages, from

the 9 per cent to 12 per cent legis-

lated by the last Labor govern-

ment.

The very same reason John

Howard andPeterCostello des-

troyed the scheme announced by

RalphWillis in the 1995 budget,

taking superannuation contribu-

tions to 15 per cent ofwages by

2001. I have never expected the

Liberals to believe inmuch but as a

conservative party youwould ex-

pect them to believe in thrift.

But the Liberal Party ofAustra-

lia does not even believe in thrift. It

is always trying to pull the plug out

of the bath ofAustralia’s universal

superannuation pool.

AndTreasurerHockey’s propos-

al to let people access their super-

annuation savings before age 55 is

just that – an attempt to pull the

plug from the bath to lower the

level of compulsory savings.

Whenever you hear theLiberals

talk about ‘‘choice’’, you hear the

codeword for destroyingmandat-

ory savings.Never having had the

wit to put such a retirement

scheme together in the first in-

stance, they periodically attempt

to do all they can to either jam it or

damage it. Andwhen they do touch

it, it is invariably to do thewrong

thing – like PeterCostello changing

the taxing arrangements to let

wealthy people take large lump

sums tax free.

Superannuation for them is fun-

damentally an ideologicalmatter.

Just likeMedicare. TheLiberals

object to the universality ofMedi-

care and they keep having a go at it,

like the recent attempt to require a

co-payment to doctors. They have

nowdropped off that because the

going got too rough for them. So

that having failed, they are back

again at super – the other great

universal scheme.

But instead of saying they op-

pose it ideologically, and arguing

their case intellectually, theTreas-

urerwill try to reach the same out-

comebymasking his real inten-

tions as a professed concern for

homebuyers. Again, it’s a case of

anything that pulls the plug from

the bath.

TheTreasurer is always speak-

ing of theAustralian budgetary

balance and the need for remedial

medium termpolicies to dealwith

the growing level of deficit. And

well hemight. Butwherewould the

country bewith theCommon-

wealth budget in growing deficit,

without the $1.9 trillion pool of

investable superannuation sav-

ings?Whatwould the aged care

budgetwith the baby boombulge

look likewithout the supplement-

ary income available fromsuper-

annuation savings? Itwould be a

horror story.

Andwhere are theBusiness

Council and the employer bodies in

this debate?The vast pool of super-

annuation savings has dramatic-

ally lowered the cost of capital in

Australia. Before 1992, the cost of

capital toAustralian businesswas

well above theOECDaverage; to-

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1HERSA1 A019

day it is well below it.

Superannuation and the associ-

ated dividend imputation system

has revolutionised capital forma-

tion inAustralia. Youwould think,

even if only out of self-interest,

these employer and business bod-

ieswould speak in favour of the

SuperannuationGuarantee

Charge and savings adequacy. But

you hear little from them.They are

happy to enjoy the largesse but be-

causemany still have aLiberal

Party ticket burning in their

pocket, they remainmute or next

tomute, in defence ofwhat is nowa

world class systemand one central

to their ownprosperity.

Paul Keating is a formerprimeminister of Australia.

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Veteran Ludwig to quit Senate at next electionSID MAHERNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR

VETERAN Queensland Laborsenator Joseph Ludwig hasannounced he won’t run at thenext election, capping a politicaljourney that took him from publichousing to cabinet.

A minister for seven years inthe Rudd-Gillard government,Senator Ludwig was picked in2011 by Julia Gillard to be the min-ister overseeing the Queenslandflood recovery effort.

But in the same year he was atthe centre of the one of the biggestcontroversies of the Gillard gov-ernment as the agriculture minis-ter responsible for temporarilybanning live cattle exports afterthe ABC’s Four Corners airedfootage of animal cruelty.

Senator Ludwig, 55, is the sonof Labor powerbroker Bill Lud-wig, the former national presi-dent of the Australian WorkersUnion, and arguably the mostpowerful factional figure inQueensland for two decades.

Senator Ludwig yesterday toldBill Shorten and Labor Senateleader Penny Wong he would notcontest the next election.

Last night he told the ALP’sQueensland administrative com-mittee he had loved being a sena-tor but it was time for new blood.

“I’ve gone from growing up inhousing commissions in Roma to

being a member of the federalcabinet,’’ he said. “In assessingwhat is in the best interests of theLabor Party, I believe it is appro-priate time to indicate my inten-tions so that a new generation canstart to step forward.’’

Senator Ludwig was elected tothe Senate in the 1998 electionand took his seat in 1999.

He held the posts of humanservices minister, special ministerof state, cabinet secretary andagriculture minister in the Rudd-Gillard governments.

“I believe that Labor can absol-utely win the next federal elec-tion. Further, I believe that Labormust win in order to restore fair-ness and equality to governmentand to deliver for all working peo-ple,’’ Senator Ludwig said.

He said he wanted a full rank-and-file preselection ballot as theparty looked for his successor.

He thanked his wife Leanneand daughters Kate and Anna forsupporting his career.

“When I finish my term as sen-ator I will leave with no regrets. Ihave had a thoroughly fulfillingand entirely unexpected career inthe Senate and as a member ofLabor governments,” he said.

“I was part of a governmentthat saved Australia from theGFC, that invested in educationlike no government before it,created the NDIS, the NBN andreformed health and hospitalfunding.’’

KYM SMITH

No regrets: former minister Joseph Ludwig

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READY TO FIGHT, DEDICATED TO LOSE SUPPORTUnions must return to representing their members, not Labor and its toadiesMARK OLSON

LAST week Perth witnessed aprotest rally that attracted num-bers more appropriate to a glor-ified union picnic rather thanan industrial event of any signifi-cance.This paltry gathering of a fewhundred at the steps of WesternAustralia’s Parliament House wasour local version of a nationwideunion march whose direct bene-fits to workers were unclear.

The thrown-together grab bagof reasons for the march includedfighting alleged threats from thefederal government to penalty

rates and wages, and opposing GPco-payments and even cuts atthe ABC.

But the government is not say-ing it’s going to do anything topenalty rates and pay other thanwait for a Productivity Commis-sion review, so the unions in-volved have blown theirmembers’ cash and resources on aprotest against a decision that notonly has not been made but whichisn’t even being considered.

Couple this to the fact TonyAbbott has just killed off GP co-payments, and you wonder why

this event was even happening,other than try to help Labor havea red-hot go at the Abbott govern-ment and perhaps boost the pro-files of some union heavies in anelection year.

These sorts of stunts personifythe reason union membership isdwindling nationwide.

Workers are sick of self-serv-ing union officials, helping outtheir buddies in the movementand in Labor, and not focusing onwhat’s best for their members.

The Australian Nursing Fed-eration in WA boycotted thismarch because we saw no directbenefit for nurses and midwives,and other workers must have feltthe same, given the poor Perthattendance.

Unions aren’t paid fees by theirmembers to help the Labor Partywin government, nor are we paid

to stage events to help unionheavies with their elections.

We are paid to get a fair dealfor our particular worker groupand to provide the best servicestheir fees can buy, which is whyour union will field thousands onthe street to protest for a realissue, as we did in 2013, when wewon a 14 per cent pay rise, but we

’ f b ’

won’t waste a cent of members’cash on mere stunts.

This is also why, at the sametime this alleged protest was hap-pening, our union was instead ac-tually doing something for ourmembers — appearing in the WASupreme Court to fight the stategovernment’s latest attempt to in-crease parking fees at WA publichospitals.

We believe our intense focuson members’ needs, which has de-livered significant improvements

to the wages and conditions ofnurses, midwives and nursingassistants in Western Australia, iswhy our membership numbersjumped to 27,000 this year, mak-ing us this state’s biggest union byfar, while the rest of the unionmovement continues haemor-rhaging members.

Once unions start focusing ontheir core business again theymight see their membershipnumbers increase.

But we don’t think they’ll pickup their game unless competitionis introduced and unions are de-regulated so workers can joinwhichever union they want.

That will be a good first step toreform.

Mark Olson is the WA state secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation.

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