And I use this document to attack them.
I just wanted to make clear in this House that what we have heard is not what I have presented in the chamber. The only areas of weakness of this document are in the middle. Those who understand medicine, know that it goes from interns to medical officers, to professors, etc, but the three areas I have mentioned, especially the ones I have mentioned in the press, are as they are, and I stand by that.
The last issue is the fourth principle. Because of the shortage of doctors and the desperation, people were placed on wrong salary scales. There are as many diverse salary scales for doctors in this country as there are doctors. In this document we are trying to make them similar, the same. Some have had to be on the same level, because they had the same qualifications, same experience, same everything, but just because they were in different institutions or different provinces, they had different salaries. I had to bring them up from the bottom, just to arrive at a common figure. Others had to be adjusted just a little bit. That is why the percentages are not the same - they will never be. There are interns who had to be brought to the level where interns are, which is actually higher than assistant directors. They had to get a 53% increase. But there are those who needed only 31% to arrive at a similar level. Among registrars, there were those who needed a 60% increase to arrive at a particular level, whereas others needed only 18% to arrive at the same level. It shows the diversity. So this document sets out to achieve parity first. The other things will follow later. They are not here.
Things such as the rural allowance, etc, I said you cannot do that unless you have a common structure. This is what this document achieves, and I can assure you I am very, very proud of it. [Applause.] I am very proud of the work that the management committee has done, because it will normalise health care, and because everybody wants health care to be normalised.
Please let us support each other. Let us not destroy each other if it is not necessary. But I forgive you, because you did not know the truth. [Laughter.] [Applause.] I forgive you with all my heart. I am not angry with anybody, just as I am not angry with this company, because when I met them I realised that they had made an honest mistake of not understanding what we are doing. [Applause.]