Mrs JILLIAN SKINNER: My question is directed to the Premier. Given his failed Labor Government has churned through yet another Minister for Health and he is about to appoint the fifth in four years, and given he is sacking nurses, cutting local health budgets and offering redundancies to all who will take one, how will the Premier solve the full-time problems in health with another part-time Minister for Health?

Mr NATHAN REES: We have a $15 billion Health budget, the largest of any in Australia. More than $15 billion in recurrent funding was announced in the most recent New South Wales budget. There is in excess of $600 million in capital works for the coming year. This is a health system—

Mrs Jillian Skinner: On the brink!

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on both sides will come to order.

Mr NATHAN REES: I will tell members opposite about the system and the men and women who work in it, whom the member opposite has just insulted by saying that it is on the brink. A couple of weeks ago when I was at a charity function a gentleman came up to me and completely unprompted said, "I want you to know something. I live in Leeton. Eight years ago I was brought up to Sydney, I had a heart transplant and I have not since missed a beat"—no pun intended. He said, "The hospital system looked after me." He said words to this effect, "This is a Rolls-Royce service. Never let people bag it."

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for North Shore to order for the second time.

Mr NATHAN REES: This was not a health-related charity function. Fifteen minutes later another gentleman came up to me and completely unprompted said, "Twelve months ago on a Sunday afternoon I was feeling ill. I went to my general practitioner on the Monday and the next day I was admitted to Westmead Hospital where I had appropriate treatment for a heart attack. I was back home the next day. I want you to know that when people bag the health system they are wrong. The health system is very good." Dr Nadia Badawi is the chief neonatologist at the Westmead Hospital neonatal care unit. This year a new neonatal intensive care bed, which cost $1 million, was provided at Westmead Hospital. Each intensive care bed keeps babies the size of my hand alive, whereas five or 10 years ago they would have passed away. I have seen Westmead Hospital's advanced procedures and I have seen similar procedures all over the State. This hospital system is one of the best in the world. People do not leave New South Wales to get health treatment; they come from all over the world to get it in New South Wales.

The SPEAKER: Order! The House will come to order.

Mr NATHAN REES: Each day more than 100,000 men and women deliver services in our health system—the best system anywhere in the world. This is the universal health system that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition would dismantle in a heartbeat. Opposition members have a track record of wanting to trash our universal health system. The health system in New South Wales is one of the best in the world. Every day it practises thousands of surgical procedures, every day hundreds of babies are born without difficulty, and every day people undergo some of the most advanced medical treatments to be found anywhere in the world. To suggest, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition did a few moments ago, that our health system is on the brink, at best displays—

The SPEAKER: Order! I call the member for North Shore to order for the third time.

Mr NATHAN REES: —gross ignorance of a great system. By taking the worst scenario she condemns the efforts of doctors and nurses, allied health workers and administrators who work in that system each and every day to restore health and to sustain life for the people of New South Wales.