WOOLDRIDGE: I think Dr Phelps and I have been able to resolve a good number of issues and we have been talking about how we can progress some of the initiatives in the budget and how we can work better together, and it has been very satisfactory.

JOURNALIST: …[inaudible]… bury the hatchet?

PHELPS: I can quite confidently say we have buried the hatchet.

JOURNALIST: …[inaudible]… apologise?

PHELPS: Yes. Dr Wooldridge apologised last night publicly and to me today and the AMA has accepted that apology.

JOURNALIST: … [inaudible]…withdrawing your legal action?

PHELPS: The AMA will be withdrawing its legal action, we just have our lawyers to dust up the final details.

WOOLDRIDGE: Both of us want to look forward. There are a lot of issues in health that we need to work on. We are both excited by some of them. I won't detail them one by one but we have had a very lengthy and very productive discussion and we want to see better health care for the Australian people out of them.

JOURNALIST: The lunch went a bit longer than you anticipated.

PHELPS: We had a great deal of issues to discuss. We were discussing the future of general practice financing, issues to do with competition policy in the Australian health sector, we were talking about the whole range of budget measures to do with the health sector and that we have a lot of work to do still, working, I believe the AMA can work constructively with the government on those issues.

JOURNALIST: …[inaudible]…

WOOLDRIDGE: I can't promise we are not going to disagree in future, but we have got a much better understanding and I am confident we can work together.

JOURNALIST: Friends and/or colleagues?

WOOLDRIDGE: Very professional colleagues.

JOURNALIST: Do you regret your statement?

WOOLDRIDGE: Look, I don't want to go over that. I've made that clear to Dr Phelps. I have said things publicly. I am looking forward now.

JOURNALIST: You said you went Dutch. Did that come out of your wallet or out of ministerial expenses?

WOOLDRIDGE: It came out of my staffer's wallet because I left my wallet in the car.

JOURNALIST: Dr Phelps, how would you describe your relationship … now?

PHELPS: We have a constructive working relationship which I believe will be to the benefit of the Australian public.

JOURNALIST: Is this the first time an apology was made face-to-face?

PHELPS: Dr Wooldridge called me last night and indicated that he made a public apology and made it clear on the telephone and we agreed to discuss any details today at the lunch.

JOURNALIST: Dr Wooldridge, why did you only offer your apology to one network last night?

WOOLDRIDGE: Ah, I guess it was the first opportunity I was talking to someone from the media and having just got back from overseas I had made arrangements to talk with one network. I used that opportunity on the first occasion because I wanted to move on. I wanted to move forward and I think this whole thing has been looking backwards. There are a lot of exciting things we can do in health care in the coming months and I look forward to working with Dr Phelps. As I am not sure we will always agree but I think we have worked out a way that we can, at least, move things forward and work together.

JOURNALIST: What about the matter of …[inaudible]…

JOURNALIST: … [inaudible]…Prime Minister's influence in resolving this spat between the pair of you?

WOOLDRIDGE: The Prime Minister has been helpful, as always.

PHELPS: I think the Prime Minister's intervention was necessary under the circumstances.

JOURNALIST: And what was it, particularly, that made you think it was best to get this behind you?

WOOLDRIDGE: Not being interrupted for 24 hours - it is very unusual in my job.

PHELPS: As I stated before, I think that the Prime Minister's intervention was very constructive last week and I think it gave us the opportunity to break the ice.

WOOLDRIDGE: I think that is …[inaudible]…

JOURNALIST: Did the Prime Minister ask you to apologise?

WOOLDRIDGE: The Prime Minister has never asked me to apologise. Never. I think

Dr Phelps put it very well - we have broken the ice, we have found we have a lot more in common than we imagined, and we are looking forward to working together to see if we can address some of those things.

JOURNALIST: So are you planning another lunch? …[inaudible]… because it went so well?

WOOLDRIDGE: Um, yes, the next one will be in Melbourne. I have got a few more secret locations there.

JOURNALIST: … [inaudible]…run down.

JOURNALIST: Who chose this location?

WOOLDRIDGE: …[inaudible]…

JOURNALIST: … a run down on what the pair of you had for lunch? Was it more humble pie than anything else?

WOOLDRIDGE: No. It was a very nice piece of snapper.

JOURNALIST: Did you choose the location?

WOOLDRIDGE: Look, I don't want to go into those details.

PHELPS: A state secret.

WOOLDRIDGE: Thank you very much.

PHELPS: Thank you.

Ends