John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, no. The people out in rural Australia have not forgotten your carbon tax, your cost of living, your debt building, your waste of money and the way you left this country in such a financial mess. Senator Dastyari, the people in rural and regional Australia do not suffer the amnesia that you do. Thankfully, they have not forgotten everything.

Let me continue. There will be an additional $6 million to current funding of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Do you know what the Royal Flying Doctor Service is? Have you ever heard of it? For essential services in rural and remote Australia, the Australian government will also support training for up to 300 extra GPs a year, by boosting GP training places from 1,200 to 1,500 in 2015, based in rural areas as far as possible—and at least 50 per cent of the new trainees will be required to be in rural and remote areas. This is what we are doing in this budget to help people in rural and regional areas. My colleague Senator Nash has control of it. She is the one who is delivering better health services out of this budget—because those people you have forgotten about we do not forget about. We realise that they are the heart of the nation. In addition, substantial Australian government assistance is provided through general health programs and assistance to the states and territories, through various programs with a significant amount directed to people living in regional Australia. In 2014-15, over 160,000 patient contacts will be supported under the Rural Health Outreach Fund. You have probably never heard of that, but 160,000 patient contacts— (Time expired)