PM: First of all, it's great to be back in Mackay, and great to be here at the Mater Hospital in Mackay, and to see what great work is done here. I'm also pleased to be here with James Bidgood, the Member for Dawson, and also with Mike Brunker. Can I say in terms of James how much I appreciate his service as the local federal Member, the Member for Dawson, and his contribution to this local community. I respect the fact that James has decided for health reasons not to continue as the Labor Member for Dawson, and as the federal candidate for Dawson, and I wish him all the very best for the future.
And as for Mike, welcome onboard, and you have a large job cut out for you. Of course, this is a bloke with broad shoulders, and he's a person of formidable experience, having worked before as the Mayor of Bowen, currently the Mayor of the Whitsundays, and a person with a deep passion and commitment to this wider Mackay region. And therefore can I endorse his strength of commitment to the future of this region, and we look forward very much to working closely with him in delivering on the ground to working families, pensioners, carers in this critical part of Australia.
Let me say a few things about health and hospitals, and then I'll take your questions. We have eleven days to go until the meeting of the Council of Australian Governments in Canberra, on the future of our health and hospital system. I was elected with a mandate from the Australian people to deliver better health and better hospital services. We've put forward a plan to the Australian people, a new national health and hospital network to be funded nationally, and to be run locally.
For the first time in Australia's history, funded by the Australian Government as the dominant funder of the acute hospital system, run locally through local hospital networks. These will be very tough negotiations in the lead-up to the Council of Australian Governments meeting in eleven days time. I fully expect that. But I have a mandate from the Australian people to make sure that we deliver real results on the ground for better health, and better hospital services across the country.
You see right now, working families, pensioners and carers know that our current system is not working. It's just not working. We don't have enough hospital beds across Australia. We don't have enough doctors. We don't have enough nurses. And this is particularly acute in regional Australia. And what working families, pensioners and carers are saying to us is it's time for action. It's time for action. It's time to get on with it. And therefore, that is why we convene as the Council of Australian Governments in eleven days time.
We believe that if we're going to deliver a better system for the future, it is fundamental that the Australian Government become the dominant funder of the future of the Australian public hospital system, because state Governments in the future will not have the finance to do it. It's as simple as that. State Governments, if there's no change, will see their entire budgets eroded by health and hospital costs within the next 20-30 years. State budgets, if no change happens, will have no money to spend on anything else other than health and hospitals in 20-30 years.
That's why it's critical that the Australian Government steps in. It's critical, therefore, because the states and territories will not have enough money in the future to fund the system, that the Australian Government becomes the dominant funder of the system. Secondly, can I say that that therefore means that we, the Australian Government, would take on the lion's share of the future growth of the needs of the health and hospital system as well.
We'd take that on to our own shoulders, $15 billion worth of additional growth in the system, and that means, for example, in the state of New South Wales, $5 billion worth of additional growth funded by the Australian Government. $3.8 billion worth of additional growth in Victoria. Some $3.2 billion of additional growth in Queensland. South Australia, $1.1 billion, Western Australia, $1.7 billion, Tasmania, $300 million. And this absolutely makes the fundamental point. Working families know that the health and hospital system right now is not working, and it's time to fix it, and it's time, therefore, for the Australian Government to become the dominant funder of the system.
Which brings me to the needs of this region here. What we want for regional Australia is to ensure that when we talk about the local hospital networks that we have much greater say for local clinical leaders to shape the future of the health needs and the hospital needs of this region. We want a system which is funded nationally, but run locally, through local hospital networks. For example, one based here in Mackay. That means that we're able to deliver more hospital beds, it means we're able to deliver also more doctors, more nurses, more allied health professionals.
Recently, the Government made an announcement that we'd be funding an additional 6,500 medical training places across the country. A large slice of those, including the specialist training places, will go to regional Australia, including regional private hospitals as well. Because they are part and parcel of the mix of training the next generation of the Australian health workforce. And that brings us to the work here, specifically on the ground in Mackay. The Minister for Health was here only a week or so ago, and her announcement was that we'd be investing $5 million now in funding a state of the art dental training facility and affordable 20 bed student accommodation at Mackay Base Hospital.
But here in the Mater, what I am confirming today is a further $1.1 million investment for the construction, fit-out of a new clinical training facility here at the Mater. I'm advised that this will provide capacity for approximately 98 additional placements for medicine, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy and physiotherapy students. The key thing is this. If we provide more training facilities for our health professionals on the ground here at the Mater Base Hospital- sorry, here at the Mackay Base Hospital and here at the Mackay Mater Hospital we have a much greater likelihood of these health specialists, these health experts, establishing their roots in this area and staying here for the long term.
Providing them with affordable accommodation is important, providing them with proper training places here in Mackay is important, and providing them with a good professional future as part of a National Health and Hospitals Network which is properly funded for the future as well. So, here in Mackay, this is absolutely crucial to the future of the National Health and Hospitals Network which we're outlining for all of Australia's 764 public hospitals, of which Mackay Base is one. This region, one of many emerging local hospital networks, is a crucial part.
Over to you folks for any questions.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned before- if the Tasmanian election results (inaudible) what will that mean for your plan?
PM: Well I notice that there is still a decision to be made by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania on the next Government of Tasmania. We should respect the processes, constitutional processes of Tasmania, and wait for that outcome. But let me make it very clear. I will work with any Premier, any Chief Minister, from any State, large or small, Liberal, Labor, Calithumpian, anybody, in order to bring about better health and better hospital services for all Australians, and all Tasmanians. But let's see what the Governor does. We've still got eleven days to go. We'll work through it.
JOURNALIST: So it's not likely to be delayed?
PM: Let's work through it. We've obviously been providing continued briefings to both sides of Tasmanian politics as is proper during this continuing period of resolving the outcome of the Tasmanian State Election. And we have sought to keep both sides of politics properly briefed on the details of this, as we should. But I say again, working families know that our current system isn't working. They know that right across Australia. They want us to get on with it, and do it.
JOURNALIST: Considering the Lowy Institute Poll results, how comfortable are you with current immigration levels of 300,000 people a year, and is this likely to change?
PM: Can I just make this point- the official permanent migration to Australia as of the time that the Howard Government was elected was about 80,000 a year, that's what they inherited from the Keating Government. 12 years later, when Mr Howard left office, it was about 180,000 a year, permanent migrants. Right now, under this Government, it's about 180,000 a year, after two years in office, thereabouts. Therefore, I think it's important we put these numbers into context.
The second thing is this- some of the numbers being kicked around at the moment include temporary visas, students, and working holiday visas and all those sorts of things. People come. People go. They go back home. The key figure here is permanent migration, and the permanent migration figures are the ones I've just referred to.
Now, on the second part of your question, about population, that's why we have appointed, for the first time in Australia's history, a Minister for Population, Tony Burke, and his responsibility is to develop a population strategy for Australia - the first time in the country's history - because the needs right across Australia are different, different infrastructure pressures, different parts of the country, some more able than others to cope with growth. The key thing is to get the balance right and that's what we've appointed Tony Burke to do.
JOURNALIST: Do you still support Christine Nixon?
PM: I believe that Christine has made a statement expressing regret. I fully respect the statement that she has made and I have complete confidence in her position as far as the Bushfire Authority is concerned.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Let me just go to one core element of that, which is the undersupply of doctors themselves, whether they are general practitioners or specialists. The statement that we made only two weeks ago announced a $600 million-plus investment in providing an additional 6,500 medical training places over the decade ahead - that's additional.
We've also calculated that, through retirements alone, we will need to have at least an additional 3,000 medical training places simply to keep things as they are, and as you know in regional Australia and rural and remote Australia, that ratio of provision now is just not enough. That's why we're funding 6,500 places - to increase the ratio of provision so there'll be more trained doctors available either as general practitioners or as specialists across the whole country.
Then, secondly, what you do out in regional and rural and remote Australia is in major regional training centres like here and like Townsville and like Cairns and elsewhere, is to ensure that as much local training can happen here as possible, with support mechanisms like local student accommodation etcetera to make it possible for people to be trained here, then to stay here.
And, finally, the Government has expanded significantly the rural doctors incentive scheme. What we have done with the package, of I think about $132 million, is radically expand the number of doctors who are eligible for that and the number of geographical regions which are eligible for that, particularly in the most remote parts of the country. From memory, I think now 2,500 doctors are eligible for that across the country, covering several hundred locations across the country.
So, this is an attempt to deal with a problem which has grown up over a long period of time, but I go back to the core part - you can apply band-aids here and band-aids there. What this system needs is fundamental surgery, and the surgery we need is a new National Health and Hospital Network funded nationally, run locally, with the Australian Government being the dominant funder of the system for the first time.
JOURNALIST: You've got Mike there beside you, you obviously know it's a pretty marginal seat. How confident are you that Mike can win it, and can you (inaudible)?
PM: These are very broad shoulders, OK, and he and I obviously go to the same barber, as well. That was a joke, by the way.
Can I say what impresses me about Mike is the extent of his experience in the region. You don't get to be mayor of Bowen for nothing. You don't get to be elected as mayor of the Whitsundays for nothing, and what I know about this bloke is that he's passionate about this region and he'll stand up for it.
I spent some time with him last night and I couldn't shut him up, and that's as it should be - effective local candidates and local members are in your face about the needs of their local community, and that applies to him as well.
It'll be a tough fight - fully understand that - but we've also been pretty active on the ground here. You mentioned this area, we've invested in roads $255 million on Bruce Highway work from Sarina to Cairns. This is among other things: we've invested $4 million in the Mackay Aquatic Centre and Riverside Development. We've invested money in the Burdekin Bridge upgrade. We've invested money, also, into the dental facilities that I referred to before here. We've invested $121 million in 73 schools for the biggest school modernisation program this region has seen, and also $23 million for social housing because there's been a shortage of housing, affordable housing.
So, if you put all that together, this is a Government which has been determined to deliver here on the ground in schools, in health, in medical training, in roads, in other areas, as well as an investment in that water treatment works that I opened with the mayor when I was last here.
JOURNALIST: Are you at all concerned about the ongoing CMC investigation into Mike?
PM: I have been advised that Mike's view is that these allegations are politically motivated and I've also been advised that Mike's perfectly happy to have these things dealt with by that body and furthermore, because they are with that body, I wouldn't propose to comment further.
This bloke has enormous experience locally. He's a good candidate, and it wouldn't surprise me if from time to time people are going to choose to throw a bit of mud at him because he is such a strong, local voice for this region.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Look, I'm not fully familiar with the details of it. I know it's been a private hospital, I know it's gone into receivership. I'm always concerned about the impact on local hospital beds. This fine hospital here at the Mater has more than 100 beds.
At Mackay Base Hospital I saw a report today in the Mercury, I think, saying that they are running 103 percent capacity. Now, this is, look, let's just call a spade a spade - you don't have enough hospital beds in this region and we need to fix it. Let's just be blunt about that. That's what I'm trying to do nationally, and for anyone to stand up anywhere in the country and say 'look, we've got enough hospital beds, there's not a problem here, we've got enough doctors and enough nurses' - I don't find that story anywhere in the country. That's why the system doesn't need a band aid here, a band aid there. It needs some fundamental surgery.
On the details of what the administrators do, of course, that's a matter for them in the case of that particular hospital that you've mentioned.
JOURNALIST: You must be concerning for you that (inaudible)?
PM: Yeah, but there are circumstances which surround this which I am plainly not familiar with. It's a private hospital with what, I'm advised, 50-60 beds. Sorry?
JOURNALIST: 39.
PM: 39. There you go, I've inflated the number, but it's part and parcel of the local delivery of services here. Therefore, it has an impact on the rest of the system. Let's just be blunt about that.
Key thing is how do we work effectively between the private and public systems to make sure that the good people of this region are looked after? It's very hard to turn this whole system around in the matter of a day, but let me tell you our new National Health and Hospitals Network is a plan not just for the nation - it's a plan for each region of Australia as well. It's what the working families of Australia are crying out for, what pensioners and carers are crying out for - it's more hospital beds, more doctors, more nurses, and with the Australian Government being the dominant funders of the system.
The states and territories can't afford it for the future.
JOURNALIST: Training facilities are obviously beneficial in the long term, but Mackay currently has long waiting lists for specialists and dentists. What can locals expect in the short term?
PM: Well, what we are doing through the National Health and Hospitals Network - let me explain that in two ways.
Firstly, what the Australian Government has done in terms of overall investment in public hospital services nationwide, starting from last year, is increase our investment by 50 percent, and that is a very large increased investment on our part, as well. The total allocation from us to the states and territories for hospitals now has risen from something in the vicinity of about $40 billion to something in the vicinity of about $64 billion. Queensland's slice of that, in terms of additional funding, would run in the vicinity, he says, of around about $4 billion. Now, that is over the current 5-year period starting last year.
Secondly, we're also providing upfront investments now to assist state governments in improving emergency departments, elective surgery waiting lists, and acute care services as well. Some of those are starting to flow through, but it's going to take some more time. I wish I could just, you know, take out the magic wand and say it's all fixed tomorrow, but these problems have been emerging for 20 or 30 years.
If this reform of ours is brought about, and I believe it is necessary for the nation that it is brought about, then it will be the biggest change to the health and hospital system this country had seen since the introduction of Medicare, and the time has come - the time has really come.
Having said that, folks, I've got to zip. Thank you.