PM: First of all it's great to back in Townsville, and great to be back in North Queensland, and to talk to this fine community who work in the Townsville Hospital.
Here in North Queensland and here in Townsville the Government has sought to be partners in the economic and social development of the region.
Just a few points - I'd like to reflect on what we've invested here so far.
In health, of course, we have already made an announcement of a $250 million investment in the future expansion of this hospital, including additional operating theatres and additional beds, as well as funding for a local GP Superclinic as well as funding, also, for additional sub-acute beds for rehabilitation purposes for this health region as well - some 30 of those.
Beyond health and into education, we have invested in providing some 2,200 additional computers for some 19 schools in the region. Some $73 million is being invested in 52 new building projects at 28 schools under the Building the Education Revolution program. Also, some $10.9 million for seven Science and Language Centres at various High Schools in the region, and $15.8 million for capital works nearby here and James Cook University.
Finally, on infrastructure, we are investing $95 million for the Townsville port access road, $55 million for the Bruce Highway arterial duplication, and also, in terms of what I understand has been a fantastic event here locally, we've supported some $10 million to stage the V8 Supercar event here in Townsville.
If you put together our various elements of economic stimulus, the Government has invested some $405 million in direct stimulus into this regional economy, and in '08-'09, $162 million of that came through. The reason for all these investments is that we wanted to make a difference in terms of the local infrastructure in Townsville, the education infrastructure, the best facilities for schools for the future, while also making a difference with jobs.
Our Nation Building for Recovery plan is about supporting jobs, apprenticeships and small business today while investing in the infrastructure, the nation building infrastructure, we need for tomorrow.
Which brings us to hospitals, and I've indicated already what investments we've committed to this hospitals future, and that allocation of a quarter of a billion dollars for Townsville Hospital represents the single largest slice of the allocation from our capital fund for Queensland, and we look forward to seeing that investment on the ground before too much longer.
But the purpose of being here today, in particular, has been to talk about the future of the health and hospitals reform program, and I would thank all those from Townsville Hospital and the wider health and hospitals community for their participation and their feedback today. The Minister and I and Warren Snowdon spent time with those who are working at the coal face in the neonatal part of the hospital, as well as the oncology part of the hospital, and we're hearing firsthand about some of the future needs, most particularly as reflected to us by those working in oncology.
But the purpose of these consultations is to here directly back from local practitioners about what they need from the system nationally for the future. Our health and hospitals system, nationwide, is at a tipping point. We need to provide more resources for it nationally, and we're going to need to reform the way in which we do our business.
That means that the primary care, the preventative health care level, and the hospital stage, as well as with aged care and dental care, and mental health services as well.
The feedback we got today in so many areas, I think, has been really important, particularly reflecting on some of the real achievements which should be made here in North Queensland in workforce planning in an integrated way for this reason. So much of that occurs, of course, here at JCU, and I congratulate all those who are involved.
The final thing is today by way of a further national investment in our health and hospital system I'm also announcing a $13.1 million investment in programs to help people with chronic disease to better manage their conditions.
One of the reform areas for the future is in preventative health care - what can you do to make the system better long term by changing lifestyle habits to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases in Australia, which is currently going through the roof. For those afflicted with chronic diseases, how do you help those with them to manage those diseases better?
That's what this investment is all about. It's part of our overall reform thrust for the future. This $13.1 million investment will provide funding for 82 health and university and community organisations to deliver programs focussed in three major areas:
* Educating health professionals in chronic disease self-management;
* Embedding chronic disease self-management into the health professional curriculum; and
* Educating consumers in chronic disease self-management and lifestyle risk factor modification.
And in Queensland, there are investments at the Queensland University of Technology, the Australian Rural Health Network, as well as the National Aging Research Institute to develop and evaluate a positive aging self-management program.
This is one practical building block to the future, of which many others need to be put in place. Our challenge is to reform the health and hospital system for the needs of the 21st century. That means big regional hospitals like Townsville have to be part and parcel of that. That's why we're here, discussing these matters here today.
We began our consultation process last week. It's now one week since we released this report, put together by Dr Christine Bennett and her Commission. Our first port of call was the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, a very big hospital there. Second was the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. The third nationwide out of the 750 hospitals in Australia is Townsville Hospital.
We're glad to be here.
Over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: Taking everything into account that you've been speaking about today, is it good enough that the swine flu (inaudible) for a bed, only to get to Townsville and found there wasn't one here and then on to Mackay at a cost of $30,000 to the taxpayer.
PM: There's always going to be necessary improvements in the health system. That's why we're here. I mean, the report which has been released by the Commission points to challenges right across the health and hospital system. Until we deal with those challenges, we're going to continue to have problems of the type that you've just described.
Why are we here? We are here to work through, with this local community, how do we invest more positively and cooperatively and constructively with this group of professionals here in North Queensland to make this system better for the future.
There's always going to be problems - You've just pointed to one of them
JOURNALIST: Doesn't that point to more urgent action needed, though. When are we actually going to see something come from all these reforms?
PM: Well, can I say that, first of all, the Australian Government, last December invested $64 billion in our new Health and Hospital Agreement with all the states, including Queensland.
Secondly, that money is flowing. That represents a 50 percent increase on the previous healthcare agreement with the states and territories. That money is now flowing.
On top of that, we also have significant investments in the capital needs of the system as well, and that's why I made emphasis here that that money, that allocation of a quarter of a billion dollars for Townsville Hospital's future, has already been announced in the Budget in May.
These are things we have already done. What we're talking about is how do we reform the system better for the long term, and that's why we're here as well.
JOURNALIST: Talking about reports, have you seen the Audit Office report yet in regards to Utegate?
PM: No, I haven't seen that. I think, on this question of the forged email affair, Mr Turnbull has seen fit to ask many, many questions on the forged email affair. It's time for Mr Turnbull to start providing some answers.
I think it's important for Mr Turnbull to come out and describe in detail all of his dealings with Mr Grech, all meetings and all conversations. Mr Turnbull must also tell the Australian people if he or anyone else associated with the Liberal Party discussed the Senate inquiry with Mr Grech before Mr Grech appeared as a witness. These are some of the very basic questions which need to be answered in this forged email affair.
JOURNALIST: So you'll be watching Australian Story closely tonight?
PM: I'll be doing other things tonight. I've got some work to do.
JOURNALIST: Mr Turnbull comes out of Australian Story tonight apparently saying that often now speaks to his wife Lucy about policy matters and that she's somewhat of an adviser to him. Is that good behaviour for a politician?
PM: Look, I would not comment at all on Mr Turnbull's relationship with his wife. That's a matter for them.
JOURNALIST: Will you be looking at a federal level at what Ms Bligh has done here in regards to fundraisers and taking in that sort of line?
PM: If I could just draw your attention to what we, the Australian Government, have done in 18 months in office.
One - introduced legislation into the Australian parliament to radically reform the disclosure laws for campaign donations. Mr Howard lifted the threshold for donations to more than $10,000. In other words, you could have 10 people at a dinner, raise $100,000 and no-one would know. You could have 100 people at dinner and raise $1 million and nobody would know. We don't think that's right, we don't think that's transparent.
So what did we do not long after coming into office? Introduce legislation to bring the disclosure level back down to $1,000 - lower than it was even before Mr Howard made the change - and we think that's right in terms of transparency. Guess who's blocking that in the Senate at the moment? The Liberal Party.
Secondly, what did we do? We introduced legislation to ban all foreign donations to Australian political parties. Guess what's happened to that legislation? It's blocked in the Senate.
Third thing we did was introduce for the first time at the Australian Government level a lobbyist register, a national register of lobbyists, so everyone's got to put their name down, everyone has to indicate the firms for which they are lobbying, and that is a transparency measure which is important.
And here's the last thing, which also goes to your question - last year we also circulated, under John Faulkner, the then Special Minister of State, a green paper for discussion in the community which goes to enhancing the disclosure of donations further, banning or capping political donations, placing limits on campaign expenditure by political parties, examining public funding rates for candidates and political parties, examining whether further regulation is required for third parties and others.
That's all out there in a green paper for public consultation now.
That's been done by us so far in our first 18 months in office. We'll be looking very carefully at the responses to the green paper in shaping our future legislative response.
OK folks, we better zip because I've got to go places.
Thanks.