The efforts we've made in the budget to maintain access to bulk-billing GPs, with a tripling of the bulk-billing payment to them, have been well reported. This is on top of the $1.5 billion boost to the indexation of Medicare, which will mean the biggest increase across the board to Medicare rebates since Paul Keating was Prime Minister.

There has also been a tripling of the payment GPs receive for treating veterans, and I was pleased to take veterans minister Keogh to Winmalee Medical Centre to meet Dr Mike de Vries and representatives of the Blue Mountains Vietnams Veterans Association—Chris McKay, John Fenton and Jack Lake. Some local veterans
may be missing out on the veterans healthcare benefit. There are more than 4,000 people in my electorate who identified themse