Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Manager of Government Business in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (14:11): I welcome the opportunity to talk about the important role that primary health care plays across Australia's health system. As we know—and again this is one of the things that we inherited from the last government—primary health care and the pressure on GPs has never been worse than it was on us coming into government. The PRESIDENT: Minister, please resume your seat. Senator Ruston, on a point of order? Senator Ruston: Yes, a point of order on relevance. I was actually specific in my question around the distribution priority areas, and I would ask you to draw the minister's attention to the matter that I was asking the question wrong. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Ruston. I do believe that the minister is being relevant. We are talking about GPs and primary health care. I will listen carefully to her continued answer. Senator Ruston: Just on the point of your ruling on the point of order, I wasn't talking about primary health care; I was talking about distribution priority areas. The PRESIDENT: Sure, and GP services sit within that broad band. Minister? Senator GALLAGHER: The issue of access to doctors is directly relevant to the 24 seconds that I had in giving my answer. I can assure Australians that we will be doing absolutely everything we can to make access to primary health care more affordable, increase access and take the pressure off GPs as they are currently experiencing it. The issues of bulk billing are serious. If you cannot get access to high-quality primary care, creates problems downstream in healthcare system. I don't accept the proposition that the shadow minister for health put at the end of the question, which was: 'Will we apologise?' We won't apologise for investing more in primary health care by having our Medicare taskforce— The PRESIDENT: Minister, please resume your seat. Senator Ruston? Senator Ruston: I rise on a point of order again. President, could I draw your attention once again to the fact that the question is specifically and only about distribution priority area changes. The minister is talking about absolutely everything else apart from addressing the specific question that I have asked her and the specific topic that I have asked her about. The PRESIDENT: Senator Ruston, as you are aware, I cannot direct the content of the answer, and I do believe the minister continues to be relevant. Senator GALLAGHER: I am not fully briefed on the issues in Mildura, which is the area I think you raised in your first question. I'm happy to come back to the Senate if there is any further information that I can provide, but I will stand by the commitment we took to the election—which was supported by the Australian community—which was to strengthen Medicare with almost a billion dollars of investment, to have our urgent care clinics, to have $750 million in the Strengthening Medicare Fund and $220 million going direct to GPs to make sure that they can do the work we need them to do. The PRESIDENT: Senator Ruston, a first supplementary question?