Medicinal Cannabis Expert Working Group

Question

1. The establishment of the Medicinal Cannabis Expert Working Group (MCEWG) was fi rst announced through a communique issued on 24 July 2024, following its inaugural meeting on 17 April 2024. However, the announcement did not provide details regarding the members of the MCEWG, the appointment process, the agenda, or the terms of reference for the working group. This also does not appear to be publicly available on the MCEWG website. - Why is the Chairperson, members, and the terms of reference for the Medicinal Cannabis Expert Working Group (MCEWG) not publicly available, when it appears that is the standard for other expert panel advisory groups? - Who is the Chairperson and who are the members of the MCEWG? - If you cannot provide details of the individuals who contribute to the MCEWG, can you please at least outline the process of how the members of the MCEWG were chosen? - Who within the Department or TGA was responsible for selecting the membership of the MCEWG? - Did establishing the MCEWG, and approving its membership require Ministerial confirmation? If so, when was this provided? 2. Can you please outline to me the required transparency standards for an advisory/ expert panel providing advice to the TGA/Department of Health? - Is it a requirement for the Chairperson to be listed and publicly available? - Is it a requirement for the members of the group to be listed and publicly available? - Is it also a requirement for their terms of reference to be listed and publicly available? - Can the general public ask questions of an Expert Working Group? - Is the Life Saving Drugs Program Expert Panel an example of this transparency standard? - Why is the MCEWG not held to a similar transparency standard as the Life Saving Drugs expert panel?

Answer

Please see attached answer.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• DHDA SQ26-002815.pdf (opens in a new tab)