PM: Its good to be back in Launceston with Jodie and Nicola, the Health Minister, Jodie the local member and Senator Polley.
Were here to talk about health, were here to talk about hospitals and the future needs also of Launceston Hospital as well, and I will come to that in a minute.
Nationwide today we have released the names of our committee of 10 leading Australians to assist us to put together the summit of 1000 of Australia's best and brightest, to deal with Australia's long term future challenges.
The reason for the 2020 summit is that we want to bring together the best and brightest across Australia to help the government plan for the long term future, not just within the next electoral cycle but challenges which take us out 10 years and beyond.
As people will conclude from the composition of the panel that we've put forward, we intend for this to be bipartisan, we intend for it to be long term, we intend to use this panel to bring together our best and brightest. Therefore what we want is, it doesn't matter what side of politics people come from, whether they are formerly Liberal or formerly Labor, what were concerned about is the best and brightest for the nations future - a bipartisan long term future. These are the things which the country is looking for as we seek to build a modern Australia capable of dealing with challenges of the 21st Century.
Today I'd also like to confirm in addition to our committee of 10 those who will also be co chairing this summit on our part. We have of course a range of individuals from the community, but I think it is useful today to confirm which Ministerial co chairs will be working together with those from beyond government.
For the Australian Economy and the Productivity agenda of course we have Dr David Morgan and his co chair will be the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Julia being responsible for the education, skills and training agenda within government.
The other key challenge for the economy which is economic growth and infrastructure, Warwick Smith a former Liberal Cabinet Minister and originally from Tasmania, his co chair will be the Treasurer Wayne Swan given the critical role of Treasury in these matters.
On population, sustainability, climate change and water, Roger Beale is the co Chair from beyond government and Penny Wong the Minister for Climate Change will be his Ministerial co chair.
For our long term national health strategy, Professor Michael Good from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research will be the non government co chair with together with Nicola Roxon who of course is the Federal Health Minister.
Strengthening communities, we have the Reverend Tim Costello who will be the non government co Chair and he will be partnered by Tanya Plibersek the Federal Minister for Housing.
The future for Indigenous Australia, Dr Kelvin Kong is the non government co chair and Jenny Macklin the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs will be the Ministerial co chair there.
Rural industries and rural communities, Tim Fischer former National Party leader, National Party Minister and former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia will be the non government co Chair and Tony Burke the Federal Minister for Agriculture will be the Ministerial co chair with him.
Towards a creative Australia, Cate Blanchett will be heading that up and she'll be partnered by Peter Garrett who's the Ministerial co Chair and Minister for the Arts.
Future Security and Prosperity, Professor Michael Wesley, from the Asia centre of Griffith University in Brisbane and his Ministerial co Chair will be the Foreign Minister Mr Stephen Smith
That's a good list both of Government and Non Government people, I just note for the record that six of our ten from the Ministry happen to be women and I seem to be in the minority here this morning as well. I think that's a good thing to see
This is important for the nation we as the Government of Australia are in the ideas business and we are looking for ideas, innovation from the entire Australian community.
Every Australian will have an opportunity to put their hand up with their ideas for the nations future and if they can do that through any of the following five ways.
They can put their own submission in and the website is australia2020.gov.au.
On top of that they can participate in local community summits and Jodie I understand will be holding one here in the Federal Electorate of Bass.
On top of that again local School's have been invited by the Federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard to hold school summits.
Further there will be a National Youth Summit held in Canberra the weekend before the 2020 summit.
And the 2020 summit itself bringing together 1000 of our best and brightest across the country.
Any Australian citizen who puts in a submission at the Community level, School level, National Youth Summit through the Summit participants themselves or directly online, their submission will considered and evaluated in terms of the deliberations of this committee come the end.
We want every Australian to be in a position to have their say. Our Nations long terms future is too important for anyone to conclude that all the good ideas lie within Government.
I've been around long enough to know that's just not the case. I don't believe the Labor party has a monopoly on wisdom on all these questions. Looking beyond the ranks of our party, beyond the ranks of Government, beyond the bureaucracy and saying to the nation at large in business, in academia and professions and beyond the professions, people from the land and elsewhere. That we want your ideas in these 10 critical challenge areas for the future, the Economy, Health, Education, Climate Change, Water, the Creative Arts in Australia, Indigenous Australia as well as out place in the world together with other challenges.
The other reason to be here today as I indicated in my initial remarks is to talk about health and hospitals in particular. It's not coincidental that the future direction for health and hospitals forms a key working group for the 2020 summit, because we are dealing with long term systemic challenges.
That's why yesterday the Health Minister and I in Canberra announced the appointment of Dr Christine Bennett to Chair the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission and she'll be supported by a commission of eminent Australians with expertise in the health field.
That is important for long term planning for our health system given the enormous challenges we face right from chronic diseases, through to acute care, through to aged care, through to primary care, preventative health care, dental, mental, health as well as what we do with long term workforce planning and the particular challenges of rural and regional health as well.
There's a substantial program of work out there for that particular body and we look forward to receiving their deliberations in due course. Of course where the rubber hits the road is at local hospitals like here at “Lonnie”. Its good to be back here again.
This is my first time in Tasmania since the election, my first visit here as Prime Minister of Australia and because health and hospitals were such a key part of our pre election commitments, that's why I believe it's important to return to this hospital. I came here with both Jodie and with Nicola prior to the election to talk specifically about the needs of this community. One of the core commitments we made was for an integrated care centre to be built in an around this hospital. The detailed planning work for that is underway. There's a meeting of health professionals I understand to get down to the nity gritty of it next week - Commonwealth Health Officials and local hospital staff and I have confirmed today to the management of the hospital that every dollar of the monies we've committed for this integrated care centre will be committed and were determined to see it up and running as soon as possible.
Health and hospitals, critical for Launceston, critical for Northern Tasmania, critical for all of Tassie, critical for the country both at a practical level on the ground and on top of all that how we plan for the future. And finally I just contributed $20 to the local canteen.
Senator Polley have you got the pressie there? Where's the pressie gone, Senator Polley's about to become a grandmother is that right? As a gift from the hospital auxiliary here, well from me by the Hospital auxiliary there's some baby booties
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: The first as I understand full meeting of officials will occur next week. We want to see it up and running as soon as possible. The hospital authorities here are looking at the best delivery model for it. They are examining those at the moment, but we are keen to see these funds allocated as quickly as possible and for construction to begin as soon as possible. I don't want to come over the top of local planning arrangements, in case I say something wrong.
But were ready cheques to be signed, (inaudible) waiting for it to happen, so that's our attitude. Beyond the discussion about integrated care centre, it was good again to touch base with the senior management of this hospital, talk about the wider Health needs of this region. In particular what's happening on the chronic diseases front, renal dialysis and as you would have seen before discussing some of those particular challenges faced by patients who are the beneficiaries of dialysis at present.
Those chronic diseases together with the other needs of the hospital acute care as well as aged care, as well as proper workforce planning for the future
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: Yes, we honour what we said before. I'll ask Nicola to add to that.
ROXON: Thank you, I have actually yesterday written to the Tasmanian Health Minister just to clarify that we are going to honour the election commitment we made. We have $50 million on the table for Tasmanian health services, but they are contingent upon the Tasmanian Government spending the money that they have saved courtesy of the decision to transfer the Mersey Hospital to Commonwealth ownership. And that means that I want an explanation from the Tasmanian Minister to be satisfied that the money is being spend on providing health services to the community in the north and north west.
Now I know there's been some reports about the sorts of services that can only be provided in Hobart and I am looking forward to Ms Giddings replying to that letter so that we can nut out if there are any problems. We made that commitment. We want that money to used for the benefit of people in the north and north-west and I will be speaking to Ms Giddings about that this week.
JOURNALIST: What can you do to ensure that that happens? (Inaudible)
ROXON: Well I think we have a very good guarantee. We have put on the table $50 million worth of Commonwealth money and that is contingent upon the other money being spent appropriately. Of course, that means if it is not being spent appropriately, we could consider whether we would withhold that money.
No one wants to do that. It is for the benefit of all Tasmanians for the commitments both of the Commonwealth and the Tasmanian Government to service the community well. I am very confident we will be able to resolve this. But it was a clear commitment made by us, advocated for strongly by both Jodie who is here today and Sid Sidebottom and others, and it will be honoured.
JOURNALIST: When do you hope to resolve this?
ROXON: Well I have just written to Ms Giddings yesterday, the reports in the paper really came just in the last couple of days. I am seeing the Tasmanian Health Minister, as long with other Health Ministers on Friday this week. If it isn't resolved by then, we certainly will be having discussions on Friday.
JOURNALIST: If you withheld that $50 million that you promised to Tasmania as a whole, contingent upon the north of the State getting its chunk of the Mersey (inaudible)
ROXON: It is not our intention, it is not our intention, and I think the Prime Minister also wants to make some comments, to do that. I am very confident it can be worked out. But we have made clear that $50 million will flow from the Commonwealth. We have taken on responsibility for the Mersey Hospital. We have requested of the Tasmanian Government, put some conditions on that money. I am absolutely confident it will be able to be resolved. But we need to have those discussions so Minister Giddings can clarify the position of her Government.
PM: And I think on that there is no point in building hypothesis upon hypothesis about what might or what might not happen. The bottom line is, we made a commitment, we are going to honour it. If we have a bit of argy-bargy on the way through. We'll sort it out.
JOURANLIST: Does the condition also remain some talk about this no strings attached funding for hospitals and that money won't flow from the Federal Government unless certain conditions are met by the States. Do you stand by that?
PM: Are you talking about nationally?
JOURNALIST: Yeah Federal funding -
PM: Well, look, what we have done, consistent with our pre-election commitments and in (inaudible) of our pre-election commitments, is have one key area, that's elective surgery waiting lists, beyond clinically acceptable times that we don't intent to stand idly by as the previous National Government did, and say, ‘your problem, we're not having anything to do with it'.
When you look around the country and see how many people are waiting for elective surgery who are going beyond clinically acceptable times, it is an absolute disgrace.
We, therefore, made a commitment about this and we have honoured that. We committed $100 million prior to the election. In discussions since we formed the government, the States and Territories came back to us and said that in terms of bringing that list right down, they needed more money than that. They came to us and asked for $145 million at COAG in Melbourne last December. We signed a cheque to them for $150 million basically saying - and the allocation here to Tassie is $8 or $9 million and that is a proportional allocation. And that is designed to deliver a very large number of additional elective surgery procedures. Now that is a classic example of the point that you are raising. We are providing extra funding, but there is a condition attached. It actually has to deliver a real outcome in terms of the number of additional elective surgery procedures. So, we are not in the business of providing States and Territories with blank cheques for anything.
We are in the business of saying, ‘here is the deal: we want to be partners with you in solving a problem for people up the road here who might have been waiting two months longer than is clinically acceptable to get in here for a procedure. Here's is the money for it, but let me tell you, we are going to measure it in terms of whether it's done.'
JOURNALIST: Doctors in this hospital say that even with that money there aren't enough nurses, there aren't enough surgeons and there aren't enough theatres for them to put through extra elective cases. So have you set a time frame (inaudible)
PM: We are looking towards this significant reduction in the elective surgery waiting list through the course of this year.
The points that many medicos make about the undersupply of doctors and nurses is dead right. And we acknowledged this upfront, prior to the election, when we talked about not just the undersupply of doctors nation wide, but again, it is an outstanding disgrace that our predecessors could have received a report from their own planning authorities for the nurses shortage in Australia which said in 2004 that we'd face a national shortage of nearly 20,000 nurses by the end of this decade, that is, by 2010.
And where rubber hits the road, again is here in places like Launceston. And I have been in very frank discussions with the good medical staff here today who are doing their absolute best, given the constraints of resources about attracting additional staff. We've provided the financial resources to do that but they have got a challenge now to actually attract those additional staff in order to support those additional procedures.
It's tough, but can I say, after 88 days or so in Government, it is very difficult to turn around a decade or more of radical underfunding of health and hospitals by the National Government. And remember, the previous Liberal Government, supported by the Liberal member here in the past, ripped a billion dollars out of the nation's hospital system. And where the rubber hits the road is in the operating theatres and in the wards of hospitals like Launceston. We're determined to turn that around, we've made one upfront payment in terms of elective surgery to make that possible. The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission will be looking at the totality of the system.
JOURNALIST: The Tasmanian Premier believes that Northern Tasmanian voters have been let down by Federal Labor because of the decision to axe those Centrelink call centre jobs. Do you agree with the Premier on that one?
PM: Well, each of the existing jobs in that centre, as I'm advised by Senator Ludwig, the responsible Minister for Human Services, is guaranteed. The point of difference lies in the promise made by the previous Prime Minister for which not a single dollar was allocated to the Budget for an expansion of that call centre with an additional 150 jobs.
That's the difference. Let's be very blunt about it. So the existing call centre, I think it's about 118 jobs, Senator Ludwig the Human Services Minister advises me that that's all okay. What we're talking about, or the basis of your question, goes to the expansion proposed by the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, prior to the election.
If they were fair dinkum about that, and if the local then sitting Liberal member was fair dinkum about that, there would have been money allocated for it. Not a zack. Not a cent. Not a brass razoo. How irresponsible can you get?
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PM: You know something, we honour every one of the commitments that we made prior to the election. And we are proud of the commitments that we made here and we will honour each of them to the letter.
We said that we'd be investing; $143 million in Northern Tasmania to support industry and development; $34 million towards investment in the north-east freight roads; $31 million for the main north-south line rail capacity improvements.
In forestry; $9 million for forest industries development fund; $8 million to address major knowledge gaps about the impacts of climate change on forestry and the vulnerability of forest systems.
In health; $15 million for the Integrated Care Centre here in Lonnie; $7.7 million towards the establishment of an addition radiation oncology unit for the north and the north-west; Up to $10 million for improved patient transport in Tasmania; and that particularly effects people in the north. The arrangements for the Mersey Hospital as the Minister was referring to before.
Water; $30 million towards the construction of the Launceston flood levy.
In sporting and community infrastructure I've got about six, seven or eight different individual undertakings there.
Each one of the commitments we made to this community, in north-eastern Tasmania, for the last election will be honoured to the letter. Each one that we made.
As to irresponsible commitments made by the other mob, for whom no money was provided, that's a matter for them.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
ROXON: Well, as the Prime Minister has set out, we are going to honour each and every one of the commitments that we made. We put forward a $50 million health package. It's been strongly supported by the community and we're here today to further those commitments.
We obviously are not going to be meeting the sorts of commitments that the previous Government made without allocating any funding to do so. And, as the Prime Minister's indicated in the other instance, some of these were quite irresponsible, not providing funding, and then expecting them to be somehow met by a future Government.
We will honour the $50 million health commitments that we've made. We're in extensive negotiations with the States and Territories over, of course, the Healthcare Agreement funding into the future, and that will be the way we deliver better health services to the Tasmanian community.
PM: I think that's an important point on health and on hospitals generally. Looking at three different stages through which addition funding support is going to be provided. Right now, up front, the commitment for our pre-election package for Tasmania, the $50 million which Nicola has just referred to. Secondly, Nicola is currently engaged in further discussions with the States and Territories on the upcoming Australian Healthcare Agreement and Tasmania will be a beneficiary of that, in addition to Tasmania's share of the elective surgery funds which we have especially established. What was the third level - the third stage? It's the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission looking at the totality of the national health system's needs into the future.
We have it staged that way.
So let me go back to the core point here. We have an election. We were elected, we are the Government, we honour our commitments. What the previous Government said about their commitments is a matter for them. But we will honour our commitments, and that is the way in which democracies resolve their future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just a quick question on Brendan Nelson's comments about a ‘Super Saturday' idea for the by-elections. Do you think the Liberals should pay for the by-elections if they do have these former Ministers deciding to stand aside?
PM: Oh look, I think that's a matter for the Leader of the Opposition; and, the varying levels of interest and enthusiasm which these members seem to be demonstrating in terms of their commitment to the parliamentary process.