PM: It's good to be back in Wagga, as I've been here many times over the years, both for family visits and in other capacities as well. But it's also good to have spent some time with professionals here at Wagga Base Hospital. And I've had a good opportunity to talk to the locals here about their needs. We, the Australian Government, have been making investments in this hospital. We have provided investments for additional equipment for the operating theatres, additional equipment for the emergency department. We've also made an investment in the transitional aged care places here, I think an extra eight, just across the road I'm told, to take some of the pressure off the hospital itself.
And on top of all those things we've made investments, significant ones, in Charles Sturt University. But this is just the beginning. What we're on about is a new national health and hospitals network, which is funded nationally, but run locally. The problem which we have with state Governments around the country is that they do not have sufficient finance for the long-term future to provide the funding certainty which our health and hospitals system needs. That's why we've put forward a plan for a new national health and hospitals network which will be funded nationally, but secondly, also run locally. So that local hospital networks, where you've got a real community of interest, can get on with making local decisions for local people. Funded nationally, run locally, and for the first time the Australian Government taking on the dominant funding role for the future of the public hospital system. One last thing, then I'll take your questions.
I welcome very much the statement by the New South Wales Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, to support this plan for health and hospitals. And I would encourage Tony Abbott, the federal Opposition Leader, to do the same. Working families across Australia want us to get on with the job of building better health and better hospital services for all Australians. I congratulate Mr O'Farrell, the New South Wales Opposition Leader, giving us his support. I would call upon Mr Abbott to do the same. I think what working families across Australia, country areas, big cities, is they want to see the politics taken out of this. They want us to get on with the decisions of making sure we can deliver this necessary reform for the future.
Over to you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, would you like to- now that you've come and seen the hospital- is it possible that you could comment on whether or not you'd like to fast-track the redevelopment of this hospital?
PM: I've had a long talk with the doctors about their redevelopment plan. They tell me that they first concluded a redevelopment plan here in 2003. That's quite a while ago. There seems to have been a, something like a seven year delay so far. You know something- what changes with what we are putting forward for the nation is for the first time, the Australian Government would take on 60% of the cost of building new hospitals, and of adding to existing hospitals, and for their equipment, like their emergency departments, and for their operating theatres.
So what I can say for the future is, once decisions are taken into redevelopment- to redevelop existing hospitals or to build new ones, under our plan, the Australian Government would be footing the dominant slice of the bill. Now, we've had discussions about the details of that, what they need in terms of extra capacity here in their emergency department. One of the problems here is the emergency department, I'm advised, can't be expanded because of the physical constraints of the hospital, that is, you can't actually make it bigger. We've got to look at practical things like that, but we, the Federal Government, for the first time, will be the dominant funders of any such expansion. In the past, the Federal Government contributed not a dollar to the capital needs of hospitals.
JOURNALIST: So ideally, when would you like to see the hospital fast-tracked?
PM: You know something, there are 764 public hospitals in Australia. There are a large number in New South Wales. What I'm saying is that once decisions are taken to expand the physical size of hospitals, or to redevelop them, or to build new ones, for the first time we become the dominant funders.
VOX: There's a reason people vote Liberal. It's to get a new hospital, so people don't lay in hospital beds for three days with broken hips.
PM: Well I think what the lady has just said there is an accurate indication of what happens when you don't have enough hospital beds. On the question of hospital beds, and to build on the comments just made, the previous Health Minister, Mr Abbott, who was Health Minister for five years, ripped a billion dollars out of the public hospital system of Australia. Now, that equates to 1025 hospital beds not being funded. What we're saying is, that has to change. And it's important to take the politics out of it, in order to make sure we get on with the positive task of making sure we've got enough hospital beds for the future.
JOURNALIST: You've got family in the region here. How would you feel if you had a family member who was laid up for a considerable time in Wagga hospital?
PM: Well, I've got to say- well, I'm about to find out I suppose, I'm going to go and have a family reunion soon, it looks like it's going to be less quiet than it was otherwise going to be- there are many hospitals in regional, rural and metro Australia which are in real need of improvement. That's just the truth of it. And people can make, you know, party political comments about this as much as they like. I think people are sick and tired of it. They just want us to get on with the job of fixing it, and to get on with it. And that's why I congratulate again Mr O'Farrell for providing bipartisan support from the Liberal party in New South Wales to get on with the job. I call upon Mr Abbott to do the same, so that we can get on with the job of providing more hospital beds, get on with the job of funding additional doctors and additional nurses which the system needs.
One last thing is this- some of our discussion now is also focused on what you need to do for extra GPs and specialists in rural and regional areas as well. That's why two weeks ago we announced a funding package of $632 million for the training of more than 6000 additional doctors, GPs and specialists, and for the specialists to be concentrated in rural and regional areas. Specialists are needed in regional Australia, like we are here in Wagga at the moment. They're needed right across the country.
Having said that folks, I'm already an hour and a half late to my family reunion, I've got to zip, got to go- thanks guys.