Mr BAIRD (2:26 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister update the House on the outcome of discussions held last Friday with the Australian Medical Association on the medical indemnity issue?

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Health and Ageing) —I thank the member for Cook for his question. I appreciate his concern to ensure that all Australians have continued access to affordable, high-quality health care. I can inform the House that the government has had extensive dialogue with the Australian Medical Association because we understand the depth of doctors' feelings about the medical indemnity problem and we also appreciate the importance of keeping doctors at their posts in New South Wales and Queensland public hospitals.

Last Friday I announced that existing IBNR levy notices would be withdrawn and that new levy notices would not be issued until after a policy review process has been completed and that they would be capped at $1,000 for an 18-month period. I also announced that doctors in public hospitals with personal private practice income of less than $5,000 would be exempt from existing and future levies. I will chair a policy review process committee, including at least two doctors, to report to the Prime Minister by 10 December, to reassess IBNR levies, liabilities and the incidence of levies in the light of our experience of tort law reform. The policy review process will also examine what needs to be done to ensure that Australia has a long-term, affordable and sustainable system of medical indemnity insurance. In the meantime, the government will extend the existing high-cost claims scheme to medical indemnity claims of more than half a million dollars.

I very much welcomed the AMA's issuing of the medical equivalent of a return to work notice. I look forward to continuing to work with the medical profession to ensure stability in our public hospitals. I look forward to continuing to work with the New South Wales government in particular, which is responsible for the operation of our public hospitals and which has, to a very great extent, put reform tort laws in place. The one thing I would give great credit to the New South Wales government for is that it has never tried to play politics with the health of the Australian people.