PM: It's been good to be at this GP practice in Hornsby in Sydney to hear first-hand from the local GPs and local training GPs about their needs. I've listened very carefully to what the local GPs have had to say about their needs. Essentially, it goes down into two things, if I've got it right. One is there is simply not enough GPs at present and the second is that the biggest complaint from patients is not being able to get an appointment with your GP on time or your preferred GP on time.
That means we've got to deal with this whole question of the medical workforce, and that's why the Australian Government has been very clear-cut about what we intend to do, which is invest in an additional 6000 GP training places and specialist training places over the decade ahead. There's also another program, which we are increasing our investment in significantly. And that is called the junior doctors program, for want of a better term.
The junior doctors program currently runs at about 400 places a year. We're going to be increasing that to something close to 1000 a year. And that's to make sure that young doctors, once they've graduated from university, once they've done their term as interns within hospitals, can have experience here in real live GP practices out in regional Australia and suburban and rural Australia and regional Australia to get a taste of what GP practice is all about, and hopefully stay in GP practice as well.
There is a huge undersupply of GPs across the country. This is an ageing medical workforce. And therefore, we need to get as much young blood in the system as possible. So the way in which we're going to do that is increase the number of training places for junior doctors, increase the number of training positions for GPs and increase of course the number of training positions for medical specialists.
I've also had the opportunity to talk to doctors here from the local hospital here at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai. And I've heard firsthand about the needs there, as well. I understand this is a significant hospital in terms of its overall beds, 200 plus. Medical staff, I think- have I got it right- of 130 odd. And the needs for hospitals like this to have a strong investment in their future. Under the Government's proposals, what we plan to do is for the first time in Australia's history, is for the Australian Government to become the dominant funders of the public hospital system in the country. The dominant funders of the recurrent needs and costs of hospitals like here at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai, the dominant funder for the first time of their capital needs, that's new buildings, plant and equipment, operating theatres and the rest. The dominant funders of also, their teaching, their training, and their research functions as well. In the past, the Australian Government provided 35 percent of the recurrent costs, zero per cent of the capital costs, zero percent of the equipment cost, and effectively zero percent of the teaching and training burden as well.
So for local hospitals like the one at Hornsby, it means that through our proposed new national health and hospitals network, we will become the dominant funding partners for hospitals like this in the future. Therefore, we believe the time for fundamental health and hospitals reform has come. With GP practices like this, so we can make sure we've got a proper GP-trained workforce into the future, but also for important local hospitals like this as well, so they are properly funded for their future as well. Over to you folks.
JOURNALIST: Mr Harris says that part of Hornsby hospital need to be bulldozed. Will your plan include enough money for that?
PM: Well, for the first time the Australian Government becomes the dominant funder of the capital needs of the system. I can't, for example, conduct an on-the-spot analysis about what part of the hospital, quote "needs to be bulldozed", and, quote "needs to be rebuilt". The planners will give us advice on that. But can I say this, for the first time, the Australian Government will be stepping in to the breach, and becoming the dominant funders of the capital needs of hospitals like the one at Hornsby. And of its equipment needs as well.
A lot of the public hospitals across Australia have become tired and old in terms of their plant and equipment. There are 764 public hospitals in Australia. This is one of them. And it's one of the bigger ones. Obviously, the big difference is us becoming the dominant funders, and we will look forward to providing, through that funding, better health and better hospital services for the people of this community as well.
JOURNALIST: You've spoken to a number of Premiers now about your plan. What signals are you getting that the states will agree to your plan, and what other sorts of things are they asking?
PM: We've had good discussions so far with the Premiers of New South Wales, the Premier of Queensland, the Premier of Victoria. That's just in the course of the last week. And in the middle of next week, I'll be heading over to Western Australia to see the Premier there as well. What I sense across the board with all the Premiers is a desire and a determination to move ahead with health and hospitals reform. Plainly, they have raised a number of questions where they want more information.
We have multiple official discussions underway now at the health level, at the treasury level, to work our way through those. But I would still urge and encourage each of them to come on board with fundamental national reform. Let me say one other thing. However, if we can't reach cooperative agreement with the states and the territories on our new national health and hospitals network, as I've said consistently, the Australian Government would then seek a further mandate from the Australian people in order to implement these reforms.
We believe the time has come. I don't think anybody out there is saying the system at present is good enough. People want better health and better hospital services nationwide. It's time we stopped talking about it, and getting on with it nationally.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, there's some concern that Western Sydney hospitals will suffer to (inaudible) they're so busy with emergency procedures that they don't have time to do any elective surgeries (inaudible).
PM: Can I say that there have been a number of scare campaigns launched by various state health bureaucrats in various parts of the country over the last couple of weeks. This is another one of them. Under our proposed funding model for hospitals for the future, including those in Western Sydney, where you've got big population growth, where you've got the delivery of many, many hospital services, those hospitals will benefit from the funding model that we've proposed, and be able to expand their services.
That's what we want to see. I think we've got to be very careful about separating out some fear-mongering on the one hand, from what's necessary for long-term reform of the system on the other to deliver better health, better hospital services for working families right across Australia, including in Western Sydney.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what rules would you like for your debate with the Opposition Leader over health?
PM: I'm pretty relaxed about all that. I'm sure others will sort that out. I think the good thing is this: we are going to have an opportunity to debate the future of the health and hospital system of Australia. The Government has put forward its plan, a new health and hospitals network. It'll be funded nationally, run locally through local hospital networks, and for the first time, the Australian Government taking the dominant funding responsibility for the public hospital system for the future. And we've detailed that in a 72 page plan. And since then, we've also announced a very large investment in 6000 additional medical personnel- doctors, GPs, specialists for the future. That's our plan.
Mr Abbott, of course, will have an opportunity to put forward his plan. That's why I look forward so much to the debate, because it'll be a debate about his record, our record of achievement, our plans for the future, his plans for the future when it comes to health and hospitals. This is fundamental for working families across Australia.
JOURNALIST: How does this marry with the idea of federalism and the states looking after their own affairs?
PM: I think it is important to enable the states and territories to get on with the business of providing the full range of their services. Let me give you one example. If we keep the system as it is at present, apart from delivering less GPs, less specialists, less nurses and can I say, less investment in hospitals like Hornsby in the future, there's one other disadvantage which flows as well, and that is that state budgets in the future cannot sustain the current growth in health and hospitals expenditure, let alone what will be needed in the future.
I think, various of the premiers have said to me, and have said publically, that without change, health and hospitals by itself will consume the entire state budgets of state governments around Australia over the next 20 to 30 years. In other words, not a buck left to do anything else. That is, for schools, for TAFEs, for transport systems, public transport, for road construction, or, for that matter, for law and order. So if you want the federation to work, it's really important that you, as an Australian Government, step in with the biggest single area of growth for the future, namely, health and hospitals expenditure, take on the dominant role, take on the dominant responsibility for the future growth of the system and allow the states and territories to have the financial capacity to deliver the other services for which they are responsible.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, other commentators have said that you came off second best during yesterday's Question Time stoush with Mr Abbott. What's your response to that?
PM: You know something? I value always, an opportunity to debate the future of the health and hospital system because working families across Australia not only want these matters debated, they want action on them as well.
Can I just say one other thing on the question of action? My political opponent, Mr Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, was Health Minister of Australia for nearly five years, right up until 2007. And in that period of time he said that the Australian Government should take over the hospital system of Australia. Nothing happened.
Instead, what he did as Health Minister was rip a billion dollars out of the public hospital system. Instead what he did as Health Minister was put a cap on GP training places when he was Health Minister. He gave the Australian people a rock-solid, iron-clad guarantee that the Medicare Safety Net would not be touched. That only held up until the election because then it was fundamentally changed afterwards. And remember also, he was part of a Government which abolished the Commonwealth dental scheme, which left 650,000 people out there without any public dental care.
So on the question of compare and contrast, records of what's been done in the past, and plans for the future - I welcome future debates with Mr Abbott on the future of our health and hospital system. His record is not a flash one.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, are you confident that Australian uranium won't be used to produce weapons if we exported it to Russia?
PM: With Russia, we have of course, a country which has signed up to the relevant international instruments, legal instruments. And on top of that of course, we have our own bilateral safeguards arrangements with them as well.
Therefore, that is the system that we have applied in relation to all the other countries that we have exported uranium to for the last 20 to 30 years, and that'll apply in the case of the Russian Federation as well.
JOURNALIST: Do you have any idea what, how long Barack Obama will spend when he comes in June, and whether he can address a joint sitting of Parliament?
PM: The President and I had a good conversation this morning on the phone. He's, of course, sorry that he can't get to Australia right now. He wants to come back at a later stage with a bit more relaxed timing so he can bring Michelle and the kids. I said, 'I think Australians would like that as well'. The President of the United States is a welcome guest in Australia at any time, and that applies to President Obama as well.
But, you know something? A lot of our conversation focussed on health reform, both in Australia and in the United States. The President and I face a couple of challenges in common - the President is trying to bring about health and hospitals reform as I am in Australia and the President is facing a Senate which only seems to know one thing, which is to block reform. So, we had a bit of a conversation about those things.
JOURNALIST: And how important is the health policy for you, given the criticism you're facing over the insulation scheme and the school stimulus, especially in New South Wales?
PM: Look can I say that the Government is committed to keeping the economy strong, protecting hundreds of thousands of jobs of working families, and keeping Australia out of recession, unlike every other advanced economy, practically, in the world. And we did that through a national infrastructure stimulus plan, which provided hundreds of thousands of jobs in Australia and jobs growth in Australia, when you found, right around the rest of the world, millions of people losing their jobs.
That's the first thing. That's on the economy.
Our second commitment is this - to deliver the basics to working families: fair laws for their workplaces; investment in schools and lifting the standards of our schools through schemes like My School; and then, thirdly, delivering when it comes to improved health and hospital services for working families as well.
They are the priorities of the Government. We intend to get on with the business of doing it.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, can I just ask you - on the Senate, Telstra shares are doing really well at the moment (inaudible) plans split up Telstra. Will it pass the Senate before the election, and will you give a commitment that the Government is committed to that, and what would be your message to retail investors?
PM: First of all, I don't provide any advice to anyone of an investment nature. That is a matter for them and those who advise them. Secondly, our policy in relation to Telstra, our policy in relation to the National Broadband Network, has not changed one bit.
And, having, said that, I think I should conclude, but with one final comment about the state elections, which will be held in a couple of states around Australia tomorrow.
Can I say this: that both these state governments, both these state governments, both these state Labor governments, are good governments, but because they are long-serving Labor governments they will go into these elections as the underdogs. Can I say both these elections this weekend are likely to go down to the wire.
I think the people of Tasmania know that David Bartlett has delivered for them and that he has a plan for their future, a clear plan for their future. In South Australia, people know also that Mike Rann has delivered strongly for the South Australian economy, and in other areas as well, and he has laid out a very clear plan to keep South Australian moving ahead.
Both these governments, long-serving Labor governments, go into these elections as the underdogs, and these elections will go down to the wire.
Thanks, folks.