EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO. 319
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
NATIONAL HEALTH ACT 1953
NATIONAL HEALTH (PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 140 of the National Health Act 1953 (“the Act”) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Part VII of the Act which makes provision for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme was amended by the Health Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1986 (Act No 94 of 1986 which received Royal Assent on 13 October 1986) to provide for a revised Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Those amendments which are expressed to come into operation on 1 November 1986 provide that when a person or that person’s family has received 25 pharmaceutical benefits in a year, that person may be issued with an entitlement card which entitles the person and the person’s family to free pharmaceutical benefits for the remainder of the year. The amendments also increase the cost of a general benefit prescription from $5 to a maximum of $10 and the cost of a concessional benefit prescription from $2 to $2.50. Pensioners will still be able to obtain pharmaceutical benefits free of charge.
The Regulations prescribe a number of matters which are required to be prescribed for purposes of the amendments to Part VII of the Act and make a number of necessary consequential amendments. The principal matters prescribed are:
• information to be included on pharmaceutical benefits prescription record forms
• information to be included on pharmaceutical benefits entitlement cards
• form of applications for additional and replacement entitlement cards
• provision for persons to seek a review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal where the Secretary refuses to issue an additional or replacement entitlement card
The Regulations are made pursuant to section 4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Sub-section 4(1) provides that where an Act that is not to come into operation immediately upon its enactment confers a power to make an instrument (including regulations), then that power may be exercised before the Act concerned comes into operation. Sub-section 4(2) provides that such an instrument takes effect on the day on which the Act concerned comes into operation. By virtue of sub-sections 4(1) and 4(2), the Regulations will come into operation on 1 November 1986.