E&OE...
Hello there,
Recently there have been suggestions that Federal Government intervention in traditional areas of state responsibility is a power grab by Canberra.
Let me make it clear, my government only intervenes in those areas where state or territory governments have not fulfilled their obligations and local communities feel let down, or where a co-operative approach having been patiently tried has clearly failed.
We intervened in the Northern Territory to help indigenous people because the Northern Territory Government had not met its responsibilities. This intervention will clearly benefit the Aboriginal community.
The historic $10 billion plan to save the Murray-Darling Basin was conceived because the cooperative approach between the Commonwealth and the Murray-Darling Basin states had failed. The states had repeatedly ignored the water-use caps voluntarily imposed under that co-operative arrangement.
We had tried the co-operative approach for years but it simply hadn't worked.
The Australian people are not especially concerned about theories of governance when it comes to the delivery of basic services such as health and education.
They want good outcomes and are not particularly fussed about which level of government delivers those outcomes.
Overwhelmingly they want more rather than less Commonwealth involvement especially where a state government has not delivered an adequate service.
In this spirit I will visit Devonport in northern Tasmania today to announce Federal Government funding to keep open a public hospital which services a community of some 70,000 people. This is not something the Commonwealth has normally done in past, but action was needed.
The Tasmanian government has announced plans to downgrade the existing hospital which has left the local community deeply unhappy.
The Commonwealth's true role in this case is one of direct intervention to help the local community.
Thanks a lot for listening.