Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Page, who was a very successful business leader before coming to this place. He worked in helping people to realise their dreams and their aspirations.

One of the things that he learnt, and one of the things that he knew, was that you can't have successful individuals unless you have a successful economy built on a plan which delivers a million jobs and which allows you to guarantee the essential services which are fundamental, such as record funding for Medicare, record funding for hospitals—$30 billion of additional funding over the course of the five-year agreement—and record funding in mental health.

One of the first things I was privileged to do on coming to this role was to visit Grafton with the member for Page. We met with families who had been touched by youth suicide. He advocated, as did those families, for better rural and regional health outcomes in mental health through a headspace for Grafton. That, I am pleased to say, is now a reality. It's a reality because we can afford to do it and it's a reality because of his advocacy. It's delivering those services to people on the ground in Grafton and in the surrounding region.

Another thing that the member did was he represented young Violet Rickard. Violet is a six-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. He argued that the drug SPINRAZA should be listed and, if it's approved by the PBAC, that it should be listed immediately. I've just had news today that Violet is on the SPINRAZA program, following the listing by the Treasurer on budget night.

Mr Hill interjecting—

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