PM: Good to be back in Queensland, good to be back in Brisbane, and I've just had a very good conversation with Premier Bligh about the future of our health and hospitals reform.
Australian working families want better health and better hospital services. We've put forward a plan, a national health and hospitals network which is to be funded nationally and run locally to deliver better health and hospital services for working families.
That's our proposal, and what I'm doing right now is travelling across Australia, speaking with the Premiers and chief ministers to build support for the plan which we have announced.
These discussions this morning were positive, they were substantive. We have agreed that our officials will continue to work on the detail of the plan between now and when the Council of Australian Governments meet in April. We spent a fair bit of time discussing the operation of activity-based funding, a bit of time discussing the operation of local hospital networks, fair of time about how we, on the ground, deliver better hospital services for Queenslanders.
This has been a good set of discussions and we intend to continue these meetings in the period ahead.
The Premier wants to work with us to try and resolve any outstanding questions between us and to get on with the business of improving health and hospital services for Queenslanders.
Over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: The Premier said that one of her biggest concerns is the local networks running her hospitals and there won't be enough state-wide control. Have you been able to (inaudible)
PM: Well, I'll have the Premier, of course, speak for herself, but for local hospital networks, our plan is this: for the first time in the history of Australia for the Australian Government to become the dominant funder of the recurrent needs of our hospitals, the capital needs of our hospitals, the equipment needs of our hospitals, the teaching and the training needs of our hospitals. In the past, that's not been the case.
But, on the other hand, while funding the system nationally we want it to be run locally, and local hospital networks are really important to do that. Local hospital networks run and driven by clinicians, doctors, nurses, health experts, as well as, of course, finance and management experts as well.
I believe we'll be able to work this through with Queensland, and that's one of the areas where our officials will be working in the period ahead.
JOURNALIST: Do you think you'll have any of the states on board before COAG?
PM: It's a matter for the states and territories. I take a positive view of this. I had a good meeting yesterday with Premier Keneally in New South Wales - again, positive and substantive. I've had a similar meeting here today. Tomorrow I'm catching up with Premier Brumby.
My hope is that we can forge a consensus around the plan which I have announced, and therefore we'll be working constructively and positively with the premiers to try and bring that about, but there's a long way to go yet before we get to the actual meeting of the Council of Australian Governments.
JOURNALIST: But you don't think you're particularly close to a deal with any (inaudible)
PM: I think what I've heard, both from the Premier of New South Wales and the Premier of Queensland is a positive approach. I'll allow them to speak for themselves. I don't wish to characterise their remarks.
The plan that we have put forward, remember, is for the first time the Australian Government stepping in to become the dominant funder of the public hospital system. I believe that working families across Australia are tired of the blame game, tired of cost shift, blame shift, tired of waste, duplication, overlap. They actually believe it's time to get on with it. There's been too much delay, too many excuses for delay in the past. We must get on with it now, and the discussions this morning with Premier Bligh were very good.
JOURNALIST: Should the premiers be concerned that (inaudible)
PM: Look, one of the reasons why we are driven to this reform is that if we do not change the system, the state and territory budgets will be overwhelmed entirely by health costs over the next 20 or 30 years to the point that their ability to do anything else would be removed.
I'm from Queensland. I'm a federalist. I actually believe in a system which works for all parts of the country. I've spent a lot of time working in this building on behalf of the Queensland Government at the time. Therefore, what I want to make sure is that state governments continue to have the resources to deliver the best transport services possible, the best education services possible, the best law and order services possible.
Health and hospital costs are out there, going through the roof, crushing state and territory budgets over time. The Australian Government must step in to reform the system and to fund the system dominantly for the future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister (inaudible) information from the Obama administration as to whether he is going to be (inaudible) or that it may be postponed?
PM: The advice that we have from the White House is that the President, as here in Australia, is pre-occupied with health reform in the United States and therefore there may be a delay by several days of his visit to Indonesia and to Australia. It may be shortened a bit, but I'll wait for further definitive statements from the White House.
On this question, though, can I say that the President is welcome in Australia at any time. He knows that. The Government of the United States knows that, and if this visit is delayed by several days, if it's brought about by the necessities of the health reform process in the United States, I really understand that as well.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: The advice that we have is that he's coming several days later than originally planned and for what might be a slightly shorter visit, but we're still working that through, but he has health reform on his agenda in Washington, we have health and hospitals reform on our agenda here in Australia. He has a thing called a troublesome Senate. I have a troublesome Senate as well. There are a few similarities here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you a fake Queenslander?
PM: I really enjoyed the Broncos last night. It was good to be out there. It was actually a pretty exciting game. Cowboys came back well in the second half. As the patron of the Broncos, I thought it was a fantastic game.
I've seen those remarks this morning. Can I say, and I'd say this to Mr Abbott, the one thing Queenslanders are concerned about is the $200 million he ripped out of Queensland's public hospitals when he was the health minister.
JOURNALIST: Did he go a bit below the belt with these personal attacks, do you think?
PM: I think the one thing Queenslanders are concerned about is health and hospital reform. The one thing Queenslanders are concerned about, therefore, when he was health minister for four or five years, ripping hundreds of millions of dollars out of Queensland's hospitals.
I notice Mr Abbott has also spoken about a proposal concerning hospital beds. Can I just say this: when he ripped a billion dollars out of the Australian health and hospital system, that's the equivalent of more than 1,000 hospital beds - 1,000 hospital beds. Let's all bear that in mind. People want us to deal with the substance of health and hospitals reform.
JOURNALIST: On the pensions increase, will pensioners be worse off (inaudible)
PM: On the question of the deeming system which has been the subject of some reporting today, that's been in existence in Australia for years and years and years under governments of both political persuasions. What's different is this - this Australian Government brought about the single biggest increase in the aged pension in the history of the aged pension over 100 years.
We are proud of that fact, the fact that we're able to increase the single aged pension by such a large amount in last year's budget. We're proud of that. We have brought that about because of a commitment we gave to senior Australians to help with the difficulties many single aged pensioners, in particular, were contemplating.
But the deeming system has been around for a long period of time under governments of both persuasions.
JOURNALIST: Some commentators have said that when you met with Kristina Keneally yesterday that you gave her a bit of a cold shoulder. Did you?
PM: I was a bit surprised by all that. We had a very good and positive meeting on health and hospitals reform. The other thing I'd say is this: on health and hospitals reform, I'm not really interested in the atmospherics. I'm interested in the substance of health and hospitals reform for the future. That's why I was in Sydney yesterday talking to the New South Wales Premier, here on Saturday in Queensland talking to Anna Bligh, and tomorrow I'll be heading down to Melbourne to talk to Premier Brumby, and over the period ahead, of course, I'll be speaking with the other premiers on the details of this plan.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, could I just ask you about Michael Clarke and Lara Bingle. There's been a lot of (inaudible) in the news this week (inaudible) do you think it's good for Australian cricket? Are you surprised by what's happening (inaudible)
PM: You know something? I'm going to leave that to them. I've got other priorities called the health and hospital system.
One other thing on the health and hospital system, by the way, just before I go. There's reporting today about rorting of the dental care system in Australia. This program, in which there has been apparent rorting, is one the Australian Government has been trying to close down for the last couple of years. We inherited it from the previous, Howard government.
The second point I would make is this: we have been trying to close it down because we're concerned about how it's been operating. We're trying to close it down, also, to provide the funding to establish a Commonwealth dental health care scheme for the 650,000 Australians who don't have access to public dental care.
This has been blocked by Mr Abbott and the Liberals in the Senate.
So, there are accusations today about the rorting of the scheme brought in by the Liberals, Mr Abbott's Liberals blocking its abolition in the Senate, and we want to use that money to get on with the business of proper health care, dental care, for the 650,000 Australians who rely on public dental care.
Having said all that, I've got to zip. I am due at a mobile office in my electorate.