Mrs PRENTICE (Ryan) (18:24): I rise today to speak on the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2013 Measures No. 1) Bill 2013, which aims to reduce regulation; to provide greater clarity, certainty and consistency in relation to the operation of the Therapeutic Goods Act; to reduce potential health risks to the public; and to improve the transparency of the regulatory regime established by the Therapeutic Goods Act. This bill is technical in nature, but I want to touch on some key aspects. In April 2011 the Consumer Health Forum of Australia released a report asking for improved transparency of the Therapeutic Goods Administration. As a national peak body representing the interests of Australian health care consumers, the Consumer Health Forum states that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has long been an area of interest for its membership. In 2011 the CHF hosted a workshop to engage consumers from a range of different backgrounds, including representatives of disease specific groups, networks representing older Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse consumer organisations. The workshop found that the overall perception of the Therapeutic Goods Administration was that it was not a transparent or accessible organisation to the general public and was not responsive to consumers' concerns. The CHF explicitly makes a number of recommendations as to how the TGA can be more transparent and accessible to consumers. One of these recommendations is the better use of the TGA website to engage consumers and to become more open and informative about medicine and medical device issues. This bill improves transparency by allowing the use of the Therapeutic Goods Administration website to provide information about regulatory decisions made under the act. It will clarify the operation of some existing provisions and remove certain anomalies, making it easier for industry to follow codes and guidelines outlined in the act. The government has followed the advice given by various committees, including the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, and has also listened to stakeholders like the Consumer Health Forum when redrafting this bill. This contrasts with the previous government's process, which did not engage in direct stakeholder consultation sessions with regard to the previous bill. The coalition government listened to stakeholders, including industry bodies such as the Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia, Medicines Australia, the Generic Medicines Industry Association, the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Dental Industry Association. Schedule 3 in this bill allows the minister to declare that products are not therapeutic goods, whether or not they come within the definition of therapeutic goods. This is to address the increasingly common practice of therapeutic claims being made for a range of goods, perhaps to make them more appealing to health conscious consumers, even if they have no or little bearing on actually preventing or alleviating any illness or injury or any other health related impact. These amendments also allow the minister to respond with flexibility on a case-by-case basis to clarify whether a particular product falls within the definition when there is uncertainty. An example used for why this provision is necessary is demonstrated by goods for which therapeutic claims have been made, such as power band bracelets, where it was claimed that the use of the band would boost a wearer's balance, strength and flexibility—claims that are demonstratively untrue. A company making unrealistic and sometimes blatantly incorrect therapeutic proclamations about their products is no new concept. Many would remember the infamous phrase 'Don't rasp your throat with harsh irritants, reach for a Lucky instead'. These were the words of a 1930s advertising campaign by Lucky Strike cigarettes. It is almost beyond belief that a cigarette company could get away with passing off its product as beneficial for the throat, but, according to current studies, false and misleading therapeutic based commercials are far from extinct. Dartmouth College researchers and the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to investigate what drug companies say in their US TV commercials. Their findings suggest a frequent disregard for the truth. Sixty per cent of prescription drug advertisements and 80 per cent of over-the-counter drug advertisements were found to be misleading or false. While the statistics are slightly different in Australia, these half-truths are still widespread in Australian commercials. A significant proportion of these misleading therapeutic based commercials and advertisements are not necessarily for so-claimed therapeutic goods. In the past, products such as medicinal mattresses with bacteria spores, designed to reduce the effects of dust mites, and 'power bands'—bands of cheap, coloured rubber which are supposed to increase the wearers' balance, strength and flexibility—have actually been assessed as a therapeutic good, as they make therapeutic claims. However, the ACCC is much better equipped to handle these misleading claims and false advertising. Schedule 3 allows the minister to determine products such as these to be 'not therapeutic goods', thus allowing the ACCC to get straight to investigating claims of misleading advertising and to respond efficiently and appropriately. The minister has explicitly stated that the powers given in schedule 3 are for increasing efficiency and reducing red tape. The overarching aspect of this bill is that it reduces unnecessary red tape and removes or modifies a number of regulatory processes and powers to improve the efficiency of the regulatory scheme, to help ensure regulatory compliance or to ensure that regulatory decisions are based on accurate information. One of the coalition's key election commitments is to reduce the burden of red tape on industry and business. I note that in the House at the moment we have the member for Kooyong, who is spearheading that campaign. The government has pledged to reduce $1 billion worth of red tape this year, and the measures in this bill are just one of the many actions that will see workers spend less time behind a mountain of paperwork and more time delivering results. I commend this bill to the House.