The following is the National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Professor Trent Twomey's address to open APP 2026.
Good morning, everyone and welcome to APP 2026.
I’d like to acknowledge the Guild’s National Council, Branch Committee leaders as well as your Guild’s previous National Presidents Kos Sclavos AM, George Tambassis, John Bronger OAM and Colin Johns OAM. The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand’s President Kesh Naidoo‑Rauf, interim Chief Executive Glenn Mills and board member Victor Chong. Welcome.
To our Guild members, our industry and health partners, our sponsors and the finalists in this year’s National Pharmacy Awards – thank you for joining us.
This year’s APP is the largest we have ever held. And the success of this event reflects your enduring commitment and dedication to our thriving profession.
Celebrating who we are
Let me begin where it matters most—with our members and the community pharmacy teams that ensure we remain the most accessible primary healthcare destination in the country.
Over the past year, your teams working in community pharmacy have done what you always do: show up.
You’ve delivered high quality care when and where it’s needed.
You’ve offered trusted advice to patients who know your name. You’ve kept your doors open in a health system under constant strain.
Through bushfires, floods and public holidays, community pharmacy keeps going.
Every single team member plays a role in providing this care. Together you create healthier communities. Thank you.
National Pharmacy Awards
Later this morning we will celebrate the finalists in the National Pharmacy Awards. My congratulations to all the finalists.
We’ve enhanced the awards process this year by introducing new categories, and capitalised on a little state and territory rivalry.
The stories of the National Pharmacy Award winners and finalists shine a light on our profession.
They show students why they chose community pharmacy; interns how to make a difference every day; pharmacists how to turn passion into purpose.
They remind owners why they opened their doors.
They inspire us to do more and go further.
Whatever stage of our careers we are in, these winners remind us all what’s possible when we back community pharmacy.
The year that was
The past 12 months have asked a lot of you.
Distribution and supply have been tough and, at times, uncomfortable.
Policy change – like 60‑day dispensing – continue to reshape dynamics. For many of you, prescription volumes have been flat. That’s real. That’s felt.
The 8th Community Pharmacy Agreement worked to rebalance this. It recognised the value you deliver and offered compensation.
It also agreed a package of reforms to improve access to women’s health through community pharmacy. It promised significant changes – free in-pharmacy consultations for concession card holders and the ability to prescribe on the PBS for the first time.
These changes would be transformative for women’s healthcare access.
Over two years since it was signed, we’re still waiting for a final policy that stacks up with what was promised in the 8CPA heads of agreement.
Not a watered-down halfway house that overpromises and underdelivers.
There has been some progress in women’s health. When I stood here one year ago only pharmacists in Queensland could offer initiation of hormonal contraception. Now every state and territory – apart from NSW and the ACT – is turning commitment into reality for patients across the country.
Your Guild’s strategic plan Towards 2035 sets a bold ambition for community pharmacists to be able to do more for patients. We want 80% of community pharmacies and 80% of community pharmacists offering full scope services by 2035.
And together with over 20 health and community groups your Guild secured the second ever PBS co-payment reduction. The Prime Minister was at APP last year to announce it.
From 1 January 2026 patients pay no more than $25 for their prescriptions – already saving Australian’s over $30mn. Your Guild wants medicines to be affordable which is why we are pressing the Commonwealth Government to freeze the copayment until 2030, in line with the freeze for concession card holders.
These are the changes that the Guild will keep fighting for.
And when the unexpected hits, your Guild acts.
Your Guild Acts
When the wholesale price of Vyvanse halved with too little notice, many members faced a shortfall of thousands of dollars.
Not because they were storing medicine or doing the wrong thing.
But because they have a large volume of patients with very specific needs.
Anthony Tassone and your Guild delivered a first‑of‑its‑kind deal that saw the product sponsor - Takeda - honour the price reduction to those with existing stock.
This was only possible because they came to the table and partnered with the Guild. It sets a new industry benchmark that we expect to be used going forward for any other rapid price reductions.
Mate, well done.
Folks, join me in acknowledging Anthony’s work.
PSA
I acknowledge Associate Professor Fei Sim and Professor Mark Naughton the former and current Presidents of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
Last year, the Society acquired the Australasian College of Pharmacy. This acquisition enables more investment in education and training. For Guild members it means complementary membership of the Society, unlocking access to world class training and professional development.
The Guild advocates, negotiates and advances community pharmacy, and the Society is the home of pharmacy education.
To support the Society in advancing their mission I am proud to announce that the Guild has made four recommendations to the PSA board: Associate Professor John Smithson from James Cook University; Matthew Tweedie former WA Guild Branch Director; the Hon Bronnie Taylor former NSW Regional Health Minister; and Ms Donna Bonnie CEO of True Relationships and Reproductive Health.
The skills and talents of these directors are unmatched and will greatly assist the Society achieve its mission.
Education
Next year, we will be celebrating the first graduations of prescribing pharmacists from the eight universities that started offering their courses this year
That means every state and territory – except the ACT – now has at least one university offering the Graduate Certificate of Advanced Practice and Prescribing for Pharmacists as we work to retrofit the profession. Many of you here today are enrolled.
Today, we can celebrate the achievement of nearly 200 new prescribing pharmacists in the class of 2025. The names of these graduates are being displayed now.
That’s 200 pharmacists who have gone back to university—completing the lectures, the coursework, the practical training and the supervised clinical practice—to be able to assess, diagnose and treat every day and long-term health conditions with confidence. And if you ask them, they’ll tell you the biggest change isn’t just gaining prescribing rights; it’s the shift in how we approach patients, how we listen, and how we partner with them in their care.
We’ve gone from 20 graduates a year to 200. And soon we will see 2000 new prescribing pharmacists graduate each year.
That is real progress. And I should recognise, once again, the significant leadership of Associate Professor John Smithson, Head of Pharmacy at James Cook University.
Those that know John, know he absolutely backs the ability of pharmacists to deliver systemic healthcare change. He absolutely backs our skills, experience and competence.
Without John’s leadership and hard work and that of the team at James Cook University, we would still be dreaming about a time we could do more for patients.
And yet here we are, making it a reality.
Making it a reality
There’s a lot of work going on in the background.
We are working with our industry partners, the Society and AdPha to advocate to the Pharmacy Board and Health Ministers for an endorsement model that helps – not hinders.
A model that empowers pharmacists to work to the full extent of their training, skills and experience.
A model with the same safeguards and protections as other healthcare professions.
The best model would allow qualified pharmacists to administer, obtain, possess, prescribe, sell, supply, review and/or use Schedule 2, 3, 4, and 8 medicines, within their individual, self-determined, documented and authorised scope of practice after completing an Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) accredited pharmacist prescriber education program, and delivered in appropriate collaborative relationships with the patient and all other members of their healthcare team.
I am so proud of every prescribing pharmacist who put in the hard yards balancing careers, home and study.
But to really seize this opportunity we need prescribing to be included in the base registerable degree, so that every student leaving university can assess, diagnose and treat every day and long-term health conditions.
This is absolutely the right – and only - direction for our profession.
More students are choosing pharmacy as their career – because they know it will take them to new heights.
And we’ve grown Guild membership while reshaping the member offer. Fees are frozen, but we continue to deliver exceptional value, ensuring that every pharmacy has the support, resources, and advocacy it needs to thrive.
Now we just need governments to make the rules consistent and fund it properly. Patients shouldn’t face a postcode lottery for affordable primary health care.
Challenges
At one time or other challenges face us all.
Sometimes, as your Guild, our job is to work with you to make the best of a very bad situation.
This year we have seen what happens when flat dispensing volumes due to 60 day dispensing, ownership concentration, greed and over‑leverage collide.
Where unsuspecting, often junior, pharmacy owners – and their communities – suffer when the wheels fall off.
Unaccountable bean counters living in a fantasy land together with an unrealistic corporate strategy has had a devastating impact on our members, their teams and their patients.
The Guild’s position is unequivocal: location and ownership rules deliver equitable access for patients. They are the backbone of community pharmacy.
Yes, there is a need for genuine pathways, so the next generation of community pharmacists can become owners.
A healthy market is important. The balance matters.
But when the scale tips too far, we see profit and growth prioritised over patients. That's a recipe for disaster in healthcare.
We see junior partners made into scapegoats for others’ poor decisions.
Sadly, this isn’t a hypothetical. It’s a very real challenge for many owners now involved with Infinity Group. That’s why your Guild will never step back from the core principles of pharmacist only ownership and location rules.
The future
Looking around the world, we can see what happens when these core principles are lost. Pharmacy deserts emerge with patients lacking basic access to pharmacy care.
I’m proud to have been asked to serve as President of the World Pharmacy Council.
The World Pharmacy Council’s 14 countries represent nearly 200,000 community pharmacies with 9.1 billion patient visits a year. They employ 420,000 pharmacists and administer 114 million vaccinations each year.
Internationally, the Guild is more connected than ever – and I’d like to welcome colleagues Clare Fitzell, Secretary General of the Irish Pharmacy Union and President of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union and Tom Murray, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union and Treasurer World Pharmacy Council who have joined us for APP.
The Guild’s work with the World Pharmacy Council ensures we can spot global trends early, understand and mitigate risks, realise gains and learn lessons from our international colleagues. We can better protect our members’ interests and bring back ideas that work in the real world.
A century of Guild
In 2027, Your Guild turns 100.
It marks a century since community pharmacy owners made the deliberate choice to come together. To organise, to set standards and to advocate for the profession they believed in.
I am the ninth National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. I take this responsibility, this duty, seriously. I am all in as the saying goes.
I see our work as building on the legacy which began in 1927. Representing a trusted profession defined by hands‑on clinical skill, problem‑solving, and deep medicines expertise.
Pharmacists have always supported the health of our communities.
We’ve compounded medicines, tailored treatments, identified interactions, advised families, and been the most accessible primary health professional Australians rely on.
Census
There’s also been considerable change in the past 100 years.
If you haven’t heard, March 2026 is Census Month.
Your Guild needs to hear from you so that we can get you the best possible deal in every conversation we have – including in the 9CPA.
When the last census took place in 2012 pharmacists were not able to vaccinate and there were no digital scripts.
A lot has changed and we need to hear from you.
I’ve completed the Census and so has every member of your National Council. I know all branch committee members across Australia are doing it as well. But that’s not enough, we need your thoughts and views.
We can't advocate to Government successfully if we don't know what you need and what makes up community pharmacy.
As you can see, we don't do Members Census’ often, I know you’re busy, there’s a lot on, but it’s critical to our future.
So I urge you all to take part, online or over the telephone. There are adverts with QR codes for more information across the convention centre and you can also come to the Guild’s stand and chat to a member of the team.
Make your voice count.
Conclusion
Colleagues, as we head towards our centenary and beyond, remember this:
You chose well.
You chose a profession that changes lives every day
Your Guild is here for you.
We are in the corridors when deals are done, in the room when decisions are made, and on the ground when issues hit.
Our future is ours to shape.
This week, take the time to connect, to learn, to share, to recruit and to mentor. Visit the trade hall. Meet our partners. Challenge the speakers. Allow yourself to be challenged by our speakers.
And walk out of APP with this commitment:
- back your profession,
- and know the Guild has your back.
- back your colleagues,
Thank you for everything you do.
Thank you for being here and have a wonderful APP 2026.