This budget is best described as the starter. Nothing fancy, no MasterChef culinary wonder, but obviously something that isn’t going to sit heavy on the stomach and make you think about leaving the restaurant early.

There is money — some $440 million — for elderly patients with chronic conditions to enrol with GP clinics from July next year.

Also, there is a sizeable chunk of cash for something that no voter in Australia outside the world of general practice has probably heard of — the Practice Incentives Program (PIP) and its alleged new centrepiece, the Quality Improvement payment.

Yes, most of us remain in the dark about what this much-delayed reform will demand of doctors, but on the surface it is a big win for the AMA, which has campaigned hard to ensure practices don’t suffer further damage to the bottom line.