PM: First of all, it's great to be back in Hervey Bay, and it's great to be here with Belinda McNeven, our candidate for the federal seat of Hinkler. And what we're here to do today is to talk about health and hospitals - health and hospital reform nationally, but what it actually means here on the ground in Hervey Bay as well. It's a big challenge to make sure that we've got a health and hospital system which meets the nation's future needs. That's why only a week or so ago in Canberra we reached an historic agreement with the states and territories for a new National Health and Hospitals Network, funded nationally, run locally - and for the first time, the Australian Government being the dominant funder of the health and hospital system of Australia.
This is a big reform. But where the rubber hits the road, really, is what happens on the ground. More hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses, more investment in accident and emergency, more investment in elective surgery - and to make sure that is happening at local hospitals like this one at Hervey Bay. In this region, the Fraser Coast, you've got important medical centres and hospital centres here at Hervey Bay, also at Maryborough, and also of course at Bundaberg, where I was just a couple of weeks ago.
And I was here at this hospital here at Hervey Bay, I think just under six months ago, listening to what the local health professionals had to say about their needs here. Number one is about what we do for the future delivery of cancer care services right across the country. It is just wrong that if you are from regional and rural Australia that the statistics tell us within the first five years of diagnosis that you are three times more likely to die of cancer in certain major cancer categories than if you lived in one of our major cities. That's wrong.
That's why we've investing more than half a billion dollars in some 22 regional cancer care centres right across Australia, so that people down the Queensland coast, in rural and regional New South Wales, in rural and regional Victoria, over in the West as well, don't have to travel to the capital city for all their basic cancer services. And that we've got a better distribution of diagnostic services as well. That's why here, at Hervey Bay, we've announced of course $9.2 million for an additional 16 chemotherapy chairs at the Hervey Bay Hospital as part of the central integrated regional cancer service.
I'm advised by the locals that'll mean taking the existing service just over here, where they've got six chemotherapy chairs, and will effectively treble the number by building this integrated centre literally just across the road from here. That's going to be a huge addition for the needs of local cancer sufferers, and we've met some of those today. We've spoken to the experts here- they say they don't have enough chairs, they don't have enough services. And this is part and parcel of making that work for this community.
It comes on top, of course, of the $8.3 million that I announced in Bundaberg a week or two ago, for an additional 14 chemotherapy chairs there, and of course, on top again, of a much larger investment in Rocky. This is all part of delivering better cancer services to rural and regional Australia.
Secondly, one of the other things I've been speaking to the locals about today is the need for more transitional care places. What are they about? It's essentially making sure that our older folk in particular, when the leave hospital, are properly cared for in the community in a transitional way before finding a proper place, back in aged care, or back in their own homes.
We've announced funding for a significant expansion of these transitional care places right across the nation, but what I want to make absolutely clear here today is that 50 older people a year in the Hervey Bay area will now benefit from the Government's expansion of transitional care places. These will provide up to 12 weeks of clinical and practical support such as physiotherapy and nursing support and personal care for older people as they recover and recuperate from surgical or other medical treatments that they've received here at this hospital.
It's one part of the overall reform of our health and hospital system.
Finally, before taking your questions let me just go back to the debate of the day, and how that fits into health and hospitals as well. There's a big national debate about the increase in the tobacco tax, and our changes to cigarette labelling. This is all part and parcel of preventative healthcare as well. Unless we are acting on critical categories of cancer in a preventative healthcare way - that means acting on cigarettes - then we're not dealing with the total problem. That's why we've brought in these big changes to the labelling of cigarette packets. That is why we've brought in these big changes to the tax imposed on cigarettes as well.
And it's very, very important that we do this. Firstly, to bring down the number of people that are smoking. Not everyone's going to stop smoking, but I ran into a bloke in the corridor today who said to me that he sat down with his wife this morning and she said she's giving up today, because it's now too expensive. I want to hear more stories like that from across the country. We estimate that 80 or 90,000 Australians will make this decision based on the increase in the cost that we have announced.
But secondly, some of the people will still keep smoking. We understand that. But smoking right now is costing Australia about $30 billion a year, if you put together the total cost. So the $5 billion that we'll earn over the next three to four years through the additional increase in the tobacco excise - every dollar of that now goes to the National Hospital Fund. And all other dollars that we pick up from the existing excise on tobacco products.
We've got to be acting on preventative healthcare, dealing with things like smoking. We've got to be enhancing our primary healthcare network, and the proper use of allied health professionals in the community. Adding resources to acute hospital care including the sort of care services delivered to cancer patients across the country as well, and also enhancing how we support aged care, through the proper provision of transitional aged care places as well. It's part and parcel of a new National Health and Hospitals Network- one which is integrated, one which deals with the whole spectrum of needs, and one which is not just funded nationally, but also run locally, through important hospitals like the one we have here at Hervey Bay.
Over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your local candidate is still a sitting councillor. Therefore, if an election is held before mid-September, we'd be up for an estimated $400,000 by-election here on the Fraser Coast. Can you guarantee us that the Government will run the term, or that we won't be up for a by-election?
PM: Can I say this about the campaign of mudslinging being run against the local candidate about the fact that she's a councillor, is that it's precisely that - mudslinging by the National Party, and I note the National Party is also running candidates from local government in various other seats in Queensland. Can I just say it's very important that people are fair dinkum about what they're saying here.
The second point is this - I welcome the fact that we have a candidate with extensive local government experience. I welcome the fact that we have someone whose feet are on the ground, 10 years in local council, a period as deputy mayor, because guess what, a candidate like Belinda therefore knows precisely what the needs of this local community are and I think that's important. I welcome the fact that we have her candidature, and I would say to the mudslingers from the National party on this, get real about what you're doing with your other candidates around the state. I think there's just too much mud being thrown on this question.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, you've announced the new chemotherapy chairs, and the funding for (inaudible) care places, but dialysis treatment, or a lack of dialysis treatment, is a key issue in this community. How confident are you under the health reform plan - will that go to alleviating and improving a lack of services?
PM: I'm certainly aware of the need of renal dialysis here. This is an important need in this community and many others across Queensland, and many others across Australia. We intend to work through each of these categories of need and come up with practical responses over the period ahead.
My challenge in the last week or so has been to get, frankly, the overall system right. That is: funded nationally, run locally, more hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses, better investment in accident and emergency, better investment in elective surgery, and frankly, better integrated cancer care services as well.
We can't do everything in a day, but let me tell you, I know the needs of dialysis, and we'll be working carefully with local health professionals, and with Belinda if she's elected, to make sure that we can improve the level of services there as well.
Sorry, you had a question there, I think.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Henry review, (inaudible) on your commitment to lowering income taxes for working families?
PM: I think it's very important that we have a - well, let me just say something about tax reform already. If you are going to look at the impact on income tax for working families, as of 1 July this coming year, if you're say, on about $80,000 a year, you will have received probably about $1,550 worth of tax cuts over the last three years courtesy of what we've done one year after the next. That's the first point.
The second is this - I'm not going to be in the business of speculating on the content of the Henry Review or on the Government's response to it, which will occur this Sunday, but let me tell you this: there's going to be a lot of people who will complain, there'll be a lot of people who will celebrate, and that the nature of making sure we've got the right tax system for the future in the national interest.
So, we'll let Sunday speak for itself. I stand by the remarks that I made in my address in Sydney yesterday morning in terms of the overall economic challenge we're facing and how best to meet it through tax reform over time.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you spoken to local health workers today about the pay bungle and what's happening with the super? There's been locals here that haven't been paid as well (inaudible)
PM: Look, this has, I think, been a really bad situation and when I was in the region recently a number of local hospital workers raised it with me as well, from memory most recently when I was in Gladstone, and I think this has been really bad. Let's just call a spade a spade. We've spoken with the State Government in terms of trying to make sure that they fix this up as soon as possible. As I'm advised, they're still working on it, but can I just say that for the people who have suffered from it, it's been, frankly, not good enough.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, would your health reform guarantee that a similar bungle wouldn't happen again?
PM: You know something? We have a system which is funded nationally and run locally, so when I say funded nationally it means we, the Australian Government, will be funding the overall needs of the public hospital system, the primary health care system, the aged care system, as well our preventative health care investments. That's our core responsibility.
Running the system is something which must happen through local hospital networks, so when it comes to the organisation of human resources, when it comes to laying out the specific facilities needed in individual hospitals, those are the sorts of decisions which will be taken locally.
My job, as Prime Minister, is to make sure that with sufficient reform, we have an effectively operating health and hospital system nationally, and one which is properly funded. The running of the system must occur at a local level.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in Maryborough there are (inaudible)
PM: First of all, my experience of EDI is that they are a fantastic company. I've been in and out of Maryborough over many, many, many years, over the last 20 years. They have done some fantastic work in one form or another and the company has had a changing shape over time, and they have delivered well on a whole range of contracts over all those years. I'm advised at present, for example, that they are working on a $900 million contract for the Queensland Government to build and deliver 36 new trains between 2007 and 2012.
As for a further contract and future contracts, I respect the tendering processes of the Queensland Government. But my knowledge of this company and the workers who work there is that I believe that they can do just as good a job as any other company in the world. That's my experience of EDI in the past. I respect the tendering processes. They'll be worked through. I think they're a first-class company. I think it's a strong tradition of being a first-class engineering company in regional Queensland and regional Australia. They've done well in the past and I believe they are out there with the best in the world.
JOURNALIST: The Sunshine Coast Hospital (inaudible) built sooner?
PM: On the question of the Sunshine Coast's individual needs, I think what you can say right now is that hospital services in the Sunshine Coast are inadequate. Let's just call a spade a spade. It's just inadequate. I come from there, okay? I grew up there. This is a rapidly growing community. That's no reflection on the Nambour Hospital. My sister works there as a nurse. My sister-in-law works there as a nurse. My mother worked in the adjoining private hospital there for more years than any of us can remember, and I was born in that town, as well.
But, you know, this is a vastly growing population. Therefore, on the need for a future and additional hospital on the Sunshine Coast, I think there is a crying need for that. On the timetabling of it we will continue to work our way through this with the Queensland Government, but let's just be very blunt about it - the hospital needs of the Sunshine Coast are huge. The population's going through the roof. Therefore, we must act to make sure that hospital services are properly delivered. We'll still work our way through the detail of that with the Queensland Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, is it concerning that HMAS Success is again under investigation over alleged bad behaviour?
PM: I understand there are investigations underway on this. My practice in the past has been not to give comment on individual matters once they are before a relevant investigation. Let's wait for those to have their proper course. Any such allegations are of concern to, I'm sure, the entire Defence community, quite apart from the wider community as well.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, taking it back to the Henry Review, is the Government going to bring in a resources tax?
PM: Can I say that Sunday will speak for itself. That's when the Henry Review will be released. That's when the Government's response to the Henry Review will be released, and I think that's the appropriate course of action.
Can I say secondly and more broadly on the question of tax reform and for working families, part of the question that was raised before - three years of income tax cuts since this Government's been elected, the third year of which will be delivered on 1 July. These are big cuts of the type I described just before.
Secondly, we also brought in an education tax refund so that if you're a working family out there you can claim back up to $700 or $800 a year for secondary school expenses in defined categories.
Thirdly, we've increased the child care tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. There have been big areas of tax reform affecting working families already. On broader tax reform and the rest of the contents of Henry and our response to it, Sunday will speak for itself.
JOURNALIST: I know you said you don't want to speculate, but -
PM: That's right, that's what I said. I can say it again, if you'd like.
JOURNALIST: The WA Premier, Colin Barnett, has gone one step further and said he won't give up the state's royalties. What's your response to his comments?
PM: Well, Colin's entitled to his views. All premiers are entitled to their view. As I've said, Sunday will speak for itself, and we will make clear our response to that.
Let me just say again, on the question of tax reform, some people will celebrate. Others will complain and complain loudly. Our job is to act in the long-term, national interest of Australia, and we intend to do so.
JOURNALIST: Will you review the CPRS over the next few years (inaudible)
PM: What we have said very plainly is that one, the Government's commitment to greenhouse gas reduction targets has not changed one bit; two, that the Government believes that the most efficient and cheapest way of acting to bring about those targets is through an emissions trading scheme; three, what now changes is our pathway to reaching those ends, and that's happened for two reasons.
One is Mr Abbott and the Greens decided to vote against the Government's emissions trading scheme. That's why it hasn't been passed into law.
The second thing that's happened is that global action on climate change has been slower than was anticipated. That's why the Government will assess global action by the end of the current Kyoto commitment period. We believe that's the right and responsible course of action. And can I say on top of that that the problem of climate change hasn't gone away. It's real, and it will compound into the future.
That's why effective national action is necessary, effective international action is necessary. That's why the Government remains committed to its greenhouse gas reduction targets. They haven't changed one bit, nor has our view in terms of an ETS in delivering on those targets hasn't changed one bit. What has changed is the pathway to get there, the core reason for which is because Mr Abbott decided to torpedo the previous bipartisan support for an emissions trading scheme which Mr Howard, Mr Costello, Mr Turnbull - in fact, most of Mr Abbott's predecessors - all supported.
Having said that, folks, I'm due in Sydney. I've got to go. Thanks.