PM: I've never seen Chris so shy in my life.
Can I say to all of you how much I appreciate your hospitality this morning and being able to see what great work you do as health professionals here in Gladstone and across central Queensland. Great to meet all the nurses and the midwives I've seen this morning, the allied health professionals, I've seen those as well, those specialising in breast care for breast cancer which we know is a huge challenge for so many Australian women and families, to all of our doctors, including our foreign-trained doctors, and I'll just say how much we welcome your contribution to the Australian health service. It's a terrific thing.
I met, also, the dentist. Where is he? There he is. Who took 30 seconds to give me a submission. That's what I call striking while the iron's hot. Well done.
Look, the reason I'm with Chris today here in Gladstone and why I've been in Queensland all week, in Cairns, in Townsville, in Mackay, in Rockhampton, Gladstone and now I'm heading to Bundaberg as well, is simply to talk about health and hospitals, and that is why we need to fundamentally change the system for the future. What we're proposing is a system which is funded nationally but run locally - funded nationally with the Australian Government being the dominant funders of the system for the first time, but run locally so that here in regional Queensland you can make more and more local decisions about the priorities you have here, and we, the Australian Government, will be funding local hospital networks directly. That's the big change for the future.
I've listened carefully to what people have said this morning about some of the challenges with your health workforce. I've listened carefully to what a number have said about the problems in finding enough midwives in this hospital, and we have a real challenge with long-term effective workforce planning.
One of the other challenges that we're facing is the adequate supply of GPs in the community to take some of the pressure off accident and emergencies as well. One of the folk that I just met upstairs, this little girl who's in hospital with the insect bite, said, from her perspective, and she's just north of here at Calliope, I think, she said, look, for her the critical thing was being able to a GP out of hours so that we don't have to constantly traipse off to the accident and emergency, and that is one of the reasons why we are so determined to fund GP Superclinics across the country. Working in partnership with the local colleges of general practice, but the whole idea is that when things happen outside of hours that there is another place to go, other than the accident and emergency. A&E is absolutely essential, but it should be there to deal with the really serious cases, and so that's why we've got to get that balance right, as well.
But on the workforce front, we also know that we've got some challenges as well. That's one of the reasons why we're funding an extra 6,500 medical training places nation-wide in the decade ahead, starting with an increase of 50 percent from next year, because we've got to make up for the shortfall which will come through doctors just retiring. So many of your local medicos are so dedicated to these communities they've been here for years and years and years, but even they one day retire. Therefore, we've got to make sure we've got an extra group, a new generation of professionals, coming through. The same with nurses - having our trained nurses across all the specialisations, that's critical as well, and the allied health professionals.
What we're here today to talk about, of course, is how do we expand the training opportunities here in local communities like this as well? And that's why we're confirming an investment of $3 million in partnership with general practice clinics including the Gladstone Superclinic to provide up to 128 student training places at that centre. That will therefore support extra pharmacists, extra physiotherapists and extra nurse training places as well, out there in general practice.
That is just one further contribution to the services that you need in communities like this. It builds on the announcements I've been making in recent days about the rapid expansion of regional cancer services as well. I think I was told before here at Gladstone Hospital you have three chemotherapy beds. Is that right? Chairs, I should say. In as far as the expansion of cancer and oncology services are concerned, right across regional Australia we're rolling out a half-billion-dollar-plus program to make sure that people have proper cancer-related services in areas outside the capital cities.
The last thing I'd say is this - we've got us an Australia for the future whereby people who live in regional Australia have proper access to health and hospital services. I looked the other day at a statistic which said that if you're diagnosed with cancer, in most forms of cancer, you have three times less the survival rates within the first five years of diagnosis if you live outside a major metropolitan centre. That should not be the case. We've got to change that, and that's why we're expanding our investment in cancer-related services across the country, as well.
So, thank you very much for having me here. We will be meeting with the other Premiers and Chief Ministers in Canberra in 10 days' time. That should be a fun meeting and looks like it's shaping up for a very interesting exchange. But, you know something? We've got to make sure that we fix the system for the future, and for the long-term future, and part of fixing it for the long-term future is making sure the building-blocks of the system, like the health and hospital community here in Gladstone, is properly funded and with proper levels of local autonomy in the future as well.
Thank you very much.
Can I just say this, before it's over - I'm heading off to Bundaberg soon, and so I'm going to be doing a press conference there on national matters, but I'm very happy to take any questions on local matter here while I'm here in Gladstone.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd, can you please tell me why Gladstone doesn't have an intensive care unit?
PM: Well, the answer in terms of the planning of your local services through the Gladstone Hospital and how it relates to other regional centres is something which is currently done by Queensland state health. The Australian Government does not have a direct role in that planning.
But what we do do is this for the future - under our plan, for the first time, we will become the dominant funders of the hospital system. At present we pay one third of the bill, and in the future we'd be paying for the bulk of the running costs of hospitals, the bulk of the capital costs of hospitals, the bulk of the equipment costs of hospitals, and the bulk of the teaching and training costs of hospitals, so if in the development of care plans for this region those sorts of services are delivered here locally, for the first time we actually pay - we become the dominant funders of that service.
JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Gladstone doesn't need a GP Superclinic. It needs an intensive care unit.
PM: Well, there's a long debate locally about the need for GP services out there in the community.
In fact, I was talking to a number of medical experts this morning who said exactly the reverse to what you have just said. And what they have said in fact, including the lady upstairs, is that what we need is to have access to out of hours GP services, to take the pressure off accident and emergency. But you know something? This should never be an either/or. We should be building up the resources and the facilities here at Gladstone Hospital, at the same time as building up the provision of GP-related services in the community as well.
JOURNALIST: Some of the nurses in Queensland aren't being paid at the moment. What's your view about that?
PM: Well if they're not being paid, that's not right- that's my view about that. Nurses are out there at the absolute front line of the delivery of care to Queenslanders and people in need. So, I don't have that report in front of me, but if that's the case, it's just not right. We need more nurses, more doctors, and more hospital beds. Over to you.
JOURNALIST: It's not just the nurses that aren't getting paid. It is all over.
PM: Okay.
JOURNALIST: There is just one big muck up. Some people for two fortnights in a row have not had any pay whatsoever.
PM: Is that right? Is that through Queensland Health, is it?
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Okay, so I'm told by the health administrators here, they're introducing a new pay system. I think if nurses are not being paid, that's not right, and as far as what is being done to set that to rights, then I'll speak later today with the state Health Minister who'd be responsible for that. Over to you again.
JOURNALIST: Not just nurses. Other departments as well.
PM: Okay, okay. Picked up your point. Others as well. Where do you work, yourself?
JOURNALIST: I'm domestic.
PM: Okay, good. Thanks for telling me that, because it shouldn't be happening.
JOURNALIST: Can I get just something on the oil issue.
PM: Yeah, sure. That passes the test of being both local and national.
JOURNALIST: There's some concern that with so much development here and 3000 ships coming through Gladstone by 2007 that Gladstone might not cope, the Reef might not cope.
PM: Well, I had a good briefing last night from the Harbour Master here, and with the team which he and others have assembled to deal with the challenges out here on the Great Barrier Reef at present. I've got to say, they're a pretty professional outfit, the folk who are dealing with a problem created by a Chinese vessel which somehow seems to have found itself 12 kilometres off course in the Great Barrier Reef, and we'll come to how that happened later on.
Can I just say two things about the matter that you've raised. One is, having been to that briefing last night, I'd just like to say to the Australian people, people of Queensland, and locals, this will be a very difficult and delicate exercise in extracting the oil from this vessel, and a difficult and delicate exercise in salvaging the vessel.
Anyone who thinks that this is all over red rover, frankly, they're not getting it right. This is going to take a lot of time, a lot of technical precision, and hard work. And frankly, it is a very difficult situation still, with no absolute guarantee of success. I'd just like to make that very plain, having spoken to the experts at the Harbour Master's coordination centre last night.
The second point you raise in your question goes to the future of the Reef - the number of vessels which are exiting the port of Gladstone, but also other ports up the coast as well. One of the things that I said was that, said yesterday, and in previous days, was that in getting to the bottom of how this, frankly, outrage occurred, having a massive vessel like that 12 kilometres off course in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, is what do we need to do for the long term future?
And the two areas that I want examined by all the Transport Safety Bureau investigators are as follows - do we need to expand the mandatory pilotage system right across the Great Barrier Reef and this was last done in 2006, it was kept to the Northern Reef and extended to the Torres Strait, but not down here. The second thing is this - do we also need to extend the reach of the vehicle tracking system, which is done for the Northern Reef and for the Torres Strait, but which is currently not applied, since 2006, to the southern parts of the Reef. These are two practical areas which need to be looked at, and I'll look very carefully at the recommendations of which they bring forward. Any other local questions?
JOURNALIST: Are there - do you think that the penalties for these shipping companies are enough to deter them from straying off course? I mean, surely with the technology we've got today, how do they get 12 kilometres off course?
PM: As I said, that's what the Transport Safety Bureau will be examining in detail, and we will look very carefully at the conclusions they reach. I think I share the views of all Australians, all Queenslanders and all locals who love the Great Barrier Reef that this is an outrage as to how it's occurred. The second point is this - you go to the question of penalties, that is also something which should be looked at for the future as well. Under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority I'm advised that violations of the provision of that Act can result in fines of $5 and a half million, can result in terms of imprisonment of up to three years for any ship's Master who has been found comprehensively negligent. Those are the penalty regimes which currently apply, but these should be looked at for the future as well. Any last local questions?
JOURNALIST: The next thing is we've had so many industries like the LNG (inaudible) What I'm wondering is, how's the hospital going to cope with the influx of people?
PM: Exactly. And this is an important question of why we actually need the Australian Government becoming the dominant funder of the system nationwide. Let me put it in these terms. Nationwide at present the health and hospitals budgets are growing at about 10 or 11% per year from the State Governments of Australia. The taxation revenues going to the State and Territory Governments of Australia each year are growing at about 4 and 5%. So the gap is going like this, which is why long term, State Governments cannot afford to fund, under current circumstances, the health and hospital system of Australia. That's why we're stepping in. So you go to the immediate application of that to your region and the question that you ask about the future planning for health and hospital needs here in Gladstone. You've got to have a planning formula which takes into account future population growth, takes into account the future needs for primary care, GPs in the community out of hours, which is why we're doing what we're doing there, but also the needs of the acute hospital system and the aged care system as well, longer term.
Having the plan right for that is one thing. Having the funding right for that to make sure it happens is something else. Putting those two things together is what this new National Health and Hospitals Network of ours is all about. We can't solve these problems overnight, but let me tell you, I believe the system right now is at tipping point and if we don't undertake some fundamental surgery, nationwide, and that includes all the important parts of that network nationally, including this hospital, and this health community, I fear it will tip over. We can't afford for that to happen. The people up here today depend on all of the work of these professionals. And we intend to back them up.
Thanks for having me in Gladstone. I've got to head off now.