and Aged Care from 1998 up to his retirement in 2001. During his last term, he transferred from his marginal seat of Chisholm to the somewhat friendlier seat of Casey. During this time he instituted significant and widespread changes to general practice. By setting up and responding to the report: "General Practice, Responding to the Future With Partnerships", he commenced a reform process that cemented the divisions of general practice as change agents, took responsibility for training GPs away from the RACGP and into the hands of an independent body (General Practice Education and Training), and instituted the Practice Incentives Program. He was forced to make a public apology to the President of the Australian Medical Association at the time, Kerryn Phelps in 2001 for publicly claiming she had no medical qualifications. During Woolridge's term as Health Minister, he was criticised for having close links with multinational drug company, Pfizer that impacted the independence of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC). Wooldridge was also criticised for appointing Pat Clear, a former executive of Glaxo-Wellcome Australia who had recently retired as head of Medicines Australia (then known as the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association) to the committee of the PBAC, prompting the immediate resignation of the Chair of the committee, Emeritus Professor Don Birkett, and leading to the refusal of five of the other committee members to be reappointed. Career after politics In 2002, Wooldridge's contract with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners was terminated due to allegations from the Australian Medical Association and the Federal Opposition that his involvement in the allocation of the $5,000,000 as well with his recent retirement as Health Minister represented a conflict of interest; in 2003 the parties settled and Wooldridge received a $382,500 payout. In 2006, Wooldrige was appointed 'Lead Independent Director' of the ASX listed Australian Pharmaceuticals Industry Limited. In September 2009, Wooldrige was invited to join a panel hosted by CSL Limited "a major manufacturer [of flu vaccine] in a US$2 billion influenza industry" hosted by the company to dispel myths about swine flu vaccination Wooldridge has served on the Boards of Resonance Health Ltd, Dia-b Tech Limited (resigned in 2009, company since de-listed) and a Director of CogState Ltd. He is currently Chairman of Neurosciences Australia, Healthsource Australia (Ministerial Advisory Committee on AIDS, Sexual Health and Hepatitis), the CRC for Mental Health and the Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre. He is