David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I am sure the minister is aware, the electorate of Lyne has many large medical centres. Port Macquarie is quite unique in that it is a tertiary referral centre in a regional centre. It is rather like we see in big cities. But that has not happened overnight. That has happened because there has been a lot of growth in general practice, which has then in turn drawn a lot of retirees into the area and that has then led to a huge population needing specialist medical care.

At the core of our health system we have the general practitioner. That is probably the most cost-effective way of delivering health care. Professional judgement and self-assessment of the rationing of prescriptions, investigations and the like add up to the best way to make sure that taxpayers' dollars are being spent well. A well-trained and widely experienced general practitioner can deliver huge preventative health benefits for the patient and also benefits for the taxpayer.

As you all remember, the people on the other side the chamber a few years ago started the GP superclinics program. My electorate had one of these and it got grants of up to $7 million. The only problem is that it was about 3.5 years ago that they got the grant and it still is not open. It is still a construction site. In their wisdom, they bought a building that had asbestos in it. They have got doctors in town, but none of them are working in it. I was just wondering if the minister could give me some idea what initiatives we in government have put forward in the budget for general practice training, education and infrastructure for general practitioners.

See this speech in context