JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how was your meeting with Dr Glasson this morning?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh it was pretty constructive, it';s the first time I had met him and I always work to have a good relationship with the AMA, they do represent a very important profession in Australia and I felt that the relationship under this leadership got off to a good start.
JOURNALIST:
His advice to members is not to sign the Commonwealth funding levy until further consultation…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he didn';t tell me that';s what he was doing, I won';t make any comment on that except to say that the levy is an integral part of the enormous help that the Government has given. We have put a lot of money into this, it';s not a problem that we';ve created, we didn';t run any of the indemnity organisations and of course the Commonwealth does not administer the tort law of Australia which has produced some of the high verdicts which the doctors say is the main reason why the premiums have got too high. But despite all of that we have put a lot of money into helping solve the problem and I think what we have done today has been very fair.
JOURNALIST:
… forcing doctors out of the profession…
PRIME MINISTER:
Well nothing the Commonwealth is doing is forcing doctors out of the profession, in fact what the Commonwealth has done has been in fact to help doctors stay in the profession. We have for example relieved all doctors over 65 of any liability, we';ve provided very big subsidies for the neurosurgeons and some of the obstetricians, so we have been very generous in what we';ve done.
Thank you.
[ends]