Dr GILLESPIE (Lyne) (15:40): The National Party is always here defending the interests of our regional and rural constituents. Let us start with our commitment to supporting rural and regional GPs. Just the other day we announced payments under the General Practice Rural Incentives Program. If you are in a very remote or modified Monash 7 region, over five years you will get $60,000 extra. That is much more generous for those general practitioners who turn up in regional towns. That is even better than what we proposed. Opposition members interjecting— Dr GILLESPIE: It is not worse; it is better! Let us turn to the pillars of the universal health care system: the Medicare Benefits Schedule; the pharmaceutical benefits advisory system; and the subsidies on drugs, public hospitals and soon, if we ever salvage it, a personally controlled e-health record. Let us start with the public hospitals. Since the coalition assumed responsibility for the treasury bench, the increases to public hospitals has been six per cent over four years. That is a total of almost 25 per cent more over four years, and $3.8 billion in real terms, for the states for their public hospitals. The member for Maribyrnong made a big song and dance about cuts, but $3.8 billion over four years is not a decrease. In fact all of the arguments about the so-called cuts to the states are based on calling a smaller increase a cut. To me a cut means you get less than you got last year. It is like the guy who gets promised a $100 a week pay rise from his boss and then, two weeks later, the situation changes and the boss comes in and says, 'I can only give you an $80 a week increase.' Members on the other side would call that a $20 cut instead of an $80 increase! They are simple principles. Mr Conroy: Do you hate workers? Dr GILLESPIE: We do not hate workers! We support workers all over the place. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme: 652 approvals versus 331. Do you know who did 652? Was it them? No! It was the Minister for Health, who spoke here earlier. The ministry of health has approved 652 new drugs since the coalition was put in charge of administering the health system—$1.3 billion in the last round and $3 billion over 18 months. We have new drugs for melanoma, cystic fibrosis, pancreatic cancer, eye disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, various forms of rare kidney disease and kidney cancer and breast cancer. We have done this because we have managed the budget well. There are over 5½ thousand items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule. We are criticised for damaging that system. But people seem to have very short memories on the other side, including the member for Sydney, the previous health minister. I think most of Australia was not listening and had given up on the Labor Party before the last election. In the last budget that the Labor Party brought down for health—they criticised us for freezing the indexation—the member for Sydney froze it! It was not us. That in itself was $667 billion out of health. The dental scheme has come up for criticism. I just looked at the budget papers before I came in here. The payments for the national partnership on health with the states amounts to $155 million, and the child dental benefit takes it up to over $200 million. Access to drugs involves the community pharmacy agreement, which the minister and the ministry has just completed with the guild. The pharmaceutical industry continues to negotiate and there will be, hopefully, a complete resolution of the funding arrangements. Whether you look at one pillar or all of them, the facts are— (Time expired)