HOST: Now, of course, central Queensland's wait for the cancer unit is finally over and a lot of people are saying 'hallelujah, it's about time'. I've got to tell you, Kevin Rudd, before you came to office I'd been preaching that infrastructure in this country is absolutely, well, was, appalling, but looks like you've heeded a lot of people and you're actually putting the infrastructure back into the local communities.
PM: Well, Michael, I spent all of last week travelling around regional Queensland and if there's one big message right down the Queensland coast, including in Rocky and in the surrounding region, it's that we have to plan for growth and part of planning for growth means dealing with something as basic as health and hospitals infrastructure. That's why we've developed a plan for a new National Health and Hospitals Network - funded nationally, run locally, but also on critical areas of major disease like cancer, why should people have to travel to Brisbane for everything?
So, this $67 million investment at Rockhampton Hospital, as you know, will fund the commissioning of two radiotherapy bunkers, the construction of a third bunker, 16 chemotherapy chairs. This is a big enhancement to delivery of cancer services in central Queensland.
HOST: Now, will this go forward regardless of what happens in the next five or six days, with the premiers all lining up to say ye or nay to the health scheme?
PM: Can I say it would really help on this score if it was all part of a new National Health and Hospitals Network. The people of Queensland have been hanging out for this for too long and we've just got to get on with the business of making sure that these cancer services are delivered. That's the strong message I've had from Kirsten Livermore, the local member, also in Flynn from Chris Trevor.
It's just pretty basic - do you know the thing, Michael that really hit me between the eyes when I got involved in this health and hospitals debate. With some cancers, patients from rural areas are up to three times more likely to die within five years of diagnosis than their counterparts in the city.
HOST: Well, let me tell you, when you go out to the airport on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there are more passengers with grey envelopes than actual baggage, overnight. They're heading to Brisbane because of the cancer and the checkups, and, you know, it's just got to stop sooner than later.
PM: Well, yeah, it stuns me that it's taken so long to get all this done, but I've got to say I've found a similar story in Rocky, in Mackay, in Townsville, in Cairns, and of course in Gladstone and in Bundaberg. I mean, you keep getting the same story.
Cancer is one of Australia's leading killers. Secondly, we have 100,000 Australians each year freshly diagnosed with one form of cancer or another. Nearly 20,000 of those are from Queensland. A large slice of them are from rural and regional Queensland.
We've got to lift our game. That's why, when people say around the place that we can fiddle at the edges with the future of the health and hospital system, I don't believe it. I think it needs some root and branch reform. We need to reform the system, make sure it's working properly, make sure that we're eliminating waste, duplication and overlap in the system, then we must make sure we fund for growth, and that's means the need for growth in cancer services, and not just in the big cities, but in regional and rural Australia as well.
HOST: Kevin, do you have to get all the premiers to sign off, because, you know, Anna Bligh's ready to sign off, New South Wales is ready to sign off, but that Senator [sic] Brumby, he's giving you a hard time, isn't he?
PM: Well, you know, there is always a fair bit of claim and counter-claim in the lead up to a Council of Australian Governments meeting, and, obviously, you're going to have different premiers saying different things out there in the public debate, but I just say this in relation to some of the calls by Premier Brumby - you know, more money for the health system without more reform just means more business as usual and more business as usual means the same old hospital system with the same old problems.
You see, we need to do two things - change the system to get rid of duplication, overlap and waste, which is currently costing the Australian and the Queensland taxpayers billions of dollars a year, then secondly invest in the growth that we need in the system as well, and that means more hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses, and also critical services for those who suffer from cancer.
I really scratch my head sometimes with those who go out there and defend the status quo, who think the current situation is good enough. It's just not. It needs to change, but on top of changing the system to make sure it's - for the first time - funded nationally and run locally, with the Australian Government for the first time being the dominant funder of the system, we also need to make sure that we then fund the growth as well. That's the two arms of our strategy, but if we just do what people like Premier Brumby are suggesting, it means the same old hospital system with the same old problems without dealing with the core problems which exist within the system at present.
HOST: Speaking with Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. Kevin, can I just get that right - if they don't sign up, are we still going to get the cancer, you know, equipment?
PM: Oh, absolutely. As far as Queensland is concerned, as far as the regional centres across Australia, they've been waiting too long. We've actually put forward our intention to move in this direction prior to the health reform proposal. This is an investment across the nation of about $560 million, so it will proceed.
So, for all your listeners there in central Queensland, can I just say: this will happen. It's too fundamental for frankly, people who are listening to your program this morning worried about not just having got a diagnosis for this disease, then having to worry about how they get to Brisbane, how often do they get to Brisbane, and at the same time wondering what about their jobs, what about their families, getting the kids to school. As someone said to me here in New South Wales just the other day, 'who's going to feed the pets? Who's going to look after things at home?' I mean, it's a real, real struggle for people and I think we really need to understand the human dimension of this.
HOST: Now, if by some chance when the federal election comes around and you are out, that doesn't mean that this whole thing will be cancelled, does it? I mean, these are the questions that are coming through to me, and I thought I might as well ask the man who's in the hot chair at the moment.
PM: Well, our commitment is absolutely clear cut. It is funded, it is in the budget, it is there to be delivered. Of course, in relation to all these cancer centres right around the country, these are questions which you should also put to Mr Abbott. I mean, the Australian people decide who the next government of Australia is. That's why we're in a democracy. I cannot speak for him. I'm just being very blunt about that.
HOST: OK, EST- sorry, ETS.
PM: Alright.
HOST: Sorry about that, Kevin.
PM: I was wondering where we were headed there.
HOST: A new one! We've just had Senator Joyce in. He's really harping on about, you know, the environmental tax system and how it's going to go with the environmental trading system. Is that going to affect our area much, because you are proceeding even though it looks like maybe we should be waiting a bit.
PM: You know something? The important thing is to make sure that we're acting in a serious, balanced and measured way on the global and the national challenge of climate change. Of course, there's a huge economic cost attached to neither Australia nor the world acting on climate change, and the economic impact will then be fed right back home as well to our industries and our kids' futures as well.
Secondly, however, in bringing about a balanced policy we need to make sure that of course we make adjustments for the future, but that we also support industry in the transition, and furthermore that we also are in the business of supporting households as well. That's why we've put forward a household assistance package to deal with any impact on the cost of living.
This is a very carefully considered policy. Can I say, when compared with that which Senator Joyce is offering out there, the Abbot plan on climate change, the contrast is pretty clear. Our plan does more, it costs less, and Mr Abbott's plan doesn't offer working families a single dollar in compensation even though there'll be a pass-through of costs to the consumer from his plan as well.
HOST: When do you reckon the federal election will be on, Kevin?
PM: Oh, look, do you want an exclusive on Rocky radio this morning?
HOST: Yes, please.
PM: Yeah it's likely to happen before April next year.
HOST: Oh, OK then, so before April next year?
PM: That's when the constitutional limit expires.
HOST: I figured that. Exclusive indeed! It's good to see you smiling.
PM: I've given you an edge onto that story, so, there you go, mate. You heard it first on Rocky radio.
HOST: So, we've got until April next year and it'll be very exciting to see what happens. How is Tony Abbott going? Are you finding him a good challenge compared to the previous Leader of the Opposition?
PM: Mr Abbott's the fourth Liberal leader that I have faced in my two years or so as Prime Minister or as leader of the Labor Party, and can I just say each of them is different, each of them has their own strengths, but look, you're listeners will make their judgements about what I am offering to the people of Australia in terms of what we've done, what we propose to do, and they'll make their judgement about Mr Abbott as well.
The core thing for us is this: one, we've acted in the last year and a half or so decisively to protect the Australian economy, to protect jobs and to support small businesses during the single worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression, and uniquely among the advanced economies in the world we managed to keep Australia out of recession.
The second thing we've been doing is delivering on our key commitments in terms of building our schools, building our hospitals system, as well as getting rid of an unfair industrial relations system through the abolition of Workchoices, but the other thing is to act on future challenges as well, and there in central Queensland one of the future challenges is how do we plan for growth for the future, how do we plan to make sure we've got the proper infrastructure for the future, the proper skills for the future - these are critical challenges for the future as well.
So, these are what we'll be judged on, as well as our delivery to local areas like central Queensland, and we're proud of what we have done in delivering on our pre-election commitments to the local area, not just in the seat of Capricornia, but also in the seat of Flynn, which is next door, as well. Large investments, but consistent with what we said we would do for local people prior to the last election.
HOST: How hard has Kirsten Livermore been working for Capricornia, because I've been saying that she's had three terms and she's like a little budgie - she could squeak away but nothing could happen. Finally, she's got power, she's in the corridors, how hard was she working for us on the cancer outcome?
PM: Well, Kirsten is in my ear and in my face all the time about the, for example, the health needs of the local community - as she should be. She and I went the other day to Rockhampton hospital, and you know, this is a hospital which has been crying out for federal investment for years and years and years. With this investment that we are making in cancer, with the investment that we are making over two years to expand Rockhampton Hospital, we're now investing $150 million in the future health needs of Rocky and the surrounding region itself.
This is very much because you've got local members like Kirsten who, as I said, are tireless in their advocacy for what needs to be done locally, and, I think more broadly when you've got Chris Trevor in Gladstone arguing the case for his region in the electorate of Flynn, doing the same, that's why we're seeing an expansion of health services there and more broadly Federal Government investment as well.
We believe in the growth of these regions. I'm from Queensland. I've been through Rocky and Gladstone countless times over the last 20 years in one capacity or another. I know what the potential is. I know what some of the needs are, but these local members have been very, very strong in their advocacy of what needs to be done in the local area.
HOST: Kevin, just one final question before you go because I know you're very busy this morning - debt, the debt that we've got. When do you see the light at the end of the tunnel that we may actually get out of the red, into the black. Are talking five years, ten years?
PM: We've outlined this very clearly in our budget papers. This is a very clear cut strategy on our part, and can I just remind your listeners before you have Senator Joyce running his usual fear campaign on radios right across regional Queensland, that here is the report card on Australia's response to the global recession last year and beginning the year before, one which caused every other economy in the advanced world to head into recession and has produced double-digit unemployment in North America and in Western Europe.
This is what we did in Australia: first of all, we brought about an economy which was the only one of the major advanced economies not to go into recession. Secondly, the only one to have grown positively in the '08-'09 financial year and in the period that was at the absolute core of the actual global downturn. Thirdly, we've produced the second-lowest unemployment of the major advanced economies, and on top of that produced the lowest debt and the lowest deficit as a percentage of GDP of the major advanced economies. This is the Government's report card.
It's very easy to run around the place and run a fear campaign. The alternative, Mr Abbott's approach, would be to stop every school modernisation program that's currently underway in the area covered by your radio station as part of the Government's school modernisation program, so critical to keeping construction jobs going in the area, and on top of that, if we had done nothing we would have the same double-digit unemployment as you've seen throughout Europe and that you've seen in various parts of America as well - hundreds of thousands more people would have lost their jobs. So our attitude is this: when the private economy is under pressure you step in as Government to make the difference, and that's all about protecting local jobs. As the private economy recovers, that's when the role of Government is then contracted, and that is the strategy clearly outlined in our budget papers.
And, having said all that, Michael, I've got to run. I've got to be elsewhere.
HOST: OK, enjoy your jog.
PM: Well, I was in the gym last night, actually, so it's more of a stationary jog, if you know what I mean.
HOST: Good man. Thank you very much for taking out the time.
PM: All the best, Michael. Bye.