Australian Politics Forum - Big Pharma has got us hooked

bogarde73

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Big Pharma has got us hooked
Jul 1^st, 2015 at 10:34am

They take $3-4 billion of our PBS money every year (and growing) and they give very little in return . . .if you exclude life-saving drugs.
I hope the Senate does put them through the wringer but it will make as little difference to our pockets as the bottom half of a mermaid would make to your sex life.
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AAP:
Pharmaceutical companies will be grilled on their tax arrangements when they front a public hearing into tax avoidance.

Representatives from nine companies including Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline will appear before a Senate economics committee in Sydney on Wednesday.

In separate submissions, the pharmaceutical companies have insisted they pay the right amount of tax.

Pfizer says its practices have been subject to "rigorous review" and "have not resulted in any disputes" with the tax office.

GlaxoSmithKline denied engaging in "artificial tax arrangements" or the use of tax havens.

It comes after three of the world's biggest tech firms - Apple, Google and Microsoft - were grilled in April amid suspicions of profit shifting and aggressive tax minimisation

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Prime Minister for Canyons Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 26906 Canberra Gender:	Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked Reply #1 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 10:35am But I won't exclude life-saving drugs, so they actually give us a lot.
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked Reply #2 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 10:54am Of course, but I was alluding to paying tax on the income they REALLY derive in our country.
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Dsmithy70

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Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked
Reply #3 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 11:03am

It will only get better (for them) in a couple of months

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/tpp--what-we-dont-know-may-hurt-us-20150629-gi0...

I've posted a few times about this deal, I cannot believe a political forum is so uninterested in something that enslaves our country to corporations, no matter your political affiliation.

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bogarde73

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Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked
Reply #4 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 12:04pm

Yes well that's another story. Particular worries are (1) the potential effect on the ability to keep getting generic drugs due to what the TPP might sanction in terms of the "evergreening" of patents and (2) how the corporates enhanced power to sue sovereign states might impact on things like the PBS.
But nobody knows do they because it's all so bloody secret. Even Sen, Elizabeth Warren in the US reported that she was shown into a secret room for a look at the documents but not before swearing her life away that she would disclose nothing of what she had seen.

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Bam

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Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked
Reply #5 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 12:29pm

I hope the parliament rejects the TPP. An agreement, negotiated in secret, that we're all supposed to be bound by and that sells out our country? No thanks.

As to Big Pharma being grilled on their taxation arrangements, it is just another example of the laxness of our tax laws with regards to big corporations. And we wonder why the budget is in deficit?

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Ex Dame Pansi

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Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked
Reply #6 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 2:08pm

Dsmithy70 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2015 at 11:03am:

It will only get better (for them) in a couple of months

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/tpp--what-we-dont-know-may-hurt-us-20150629-gi0...

I've posted a few times about this deal, I cannot believe a political forum is so uninterested in something that enslaves our country to corporations, no matter your political affiliation.

Me either, they'll learn when it's too late.

Nobody wants it except selective governments and big business. It will be detrimental to the people of those countries that sign the agreement.

We will not be told what's in the deal until after we sign......it's too late then.

I've been petitioning and lobbying for well over a year with the American anti PPT in the hope that if it can be blocked there, that will be the end of it.

TPP - what we don't know may hurt us

watch this two minute video explaining the TPP.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/tpp--what-we-dont-know-may-hurt-us-20150629-gi0...

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Hendrix
andrei said: Great isn't it? Seeing boatloads of what is nothing more than human garbage turn up.....

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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Big Pharma has got us hooked Reply #7 - Jul 1^st, 2015 at 2:24pm It's a bit like Don Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns": the things we don't know we don't know.
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