PM: First of all, happy birthday David. 42 years young today and I found out about this about four minutes before I landed.
PREMIER BARTLETT: I thought that's why you were here.
PM: No, I don't wish to tell a lie, so, anyway, happy birthday mate and many happy returns today. He tells me he got breakfast in bed from the kids.
BARTLETT: That's right.
PM: Is that right?
BARTLETT: Yep.
PM: I'm impressed. You should send a text to my kids about the need for similar treatment.
BARTLETT: They want the new kids book, though.
PM: Jasper and Abby. Now, we're here today to talk about health, health and hospitals, and the importance of a strong partnership between the Australian Government and the Tasmanian Government to serve the future health needs of this State.
Health and building Australia's future are critical priorities for the Australian Government. If we're going to build an Australia for the future which deals with the challenges of an aging population, it means that we have to invest in the future of our health and hospital system.
That's why the Australian Government, in the current Australian Health Agreement between Canberra and the States, has increased by 50 percent our total allocation to the States, including to Tasmania. Part of that increased allocation is the $750 million program that we have announced for specific Australian Government investment in the needs for the emergency departments of our major public hospitals right across the country, and that's why we're here today at Royal Hobart.
What the Premier and I are announcing today is a combined investment of some $21 million to improve the emergency departments of Tasmania's major hospitals. This includes $16.6 million from the Australian Government over four years and these investments will go into ambulance services, mental health services and the overall enhancement of emergency departments.
If I could go to the detail of what we're providing under this, together with our colleagues in the State Government, $3 million this year to address the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department pressure points, and almost $3.5 million to improve patient flow and to ensure specialist mental health nursing over 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We've just spoken with a mental health nurse here who's indicated the real challenges which exist with presentations from patients in this category and this is one way to up the level of service available in Royal Hobart to deal with patients in that category.
Secondly, $2 million this year to address the Launceston General Hospital emergency department pressure points and $2.4 million to provide specialist mental health nursing coverage in ED 24 hours a day, seven days a week there, as well.
$3.8 million to re-develop the emergency department at the North-West Regional Hospital at Burnie, including eight new general treatment bays, a new secure psychiatric treatment area with 24/7 specialist mental health nursing staff.
There are other investments as well, including nearly $1 million for the Tasmanian Ambulance and Health Transport Service.
These are important investments as part of a partnership between the Australian Government and the Tasmanian Government on the future needs of our health and hospital system.
Before I ask the Premier to comment on that, can I just add one further set of remarks about Australian Government assistance to the earthquake victims in Haiti. The Foreign Minister earlier today has announced an increase of some 50 percent in our allocation of emergency assistance and humanitarian assistance to those who are suffering from the appalling tragedy which has occurred in Haiti. This brings our total Australian Government allocation to some $15 million dollars. The extra investment of $5 million in the immediate response phase will include $3 million to the World Food Program, a further $1 million to Australian NGOs and a further $1 million to the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
As I said yesterday in my remarks in Melbourne, the Government will be very attentive to further requests for assistance from the various UN agencies and other agencies who are assisting in dealing with the terrible human tragedy which is unfolding each day on our television screens as a consequence of the earthquake in Haiti.
And so, David, if I can ask you to add on the health announcements.
BARTLETT: Can I start by welcoming the Prime Minister back to Tasmania. As many of you know, he's spent a fair bit of time here recently and we're always pleased to have the Prime Minister here.
PM: Are you going to give me a passport?
BARTLETT: Well, I was saving that bit for the speech later on this evening, actually, but we are pleased to have you here and we are particularly pleased to be working so closely with the Rudd Labor Government in the key areas that affect Tasmanians lives - in education, where we're working very closely together and we are seeing real improvements from the investments that we've made together, now in health, and in health for some months, we are seeing joint investment, a partnership approach and an approach that is seeing real improvements.
But as we recognise also, particularly in emergency departments across the State, there have been real pressures. They are demand pressures, and they are demand pressures that require extra investment to alleviate. That's why we're very pleased with the extra some $16 million flowing from the Commonwealth coffers into emergency. The State Government also, due to improved revenues allocated in the mid-year financial report, a further $3 million for the Royal here and a further $2 million for the LGH. That's new State money out of improved revenues made available because of a strong economy and stronger returns than we anticipated in terms of revenues.
But of the third and fourth and very important elements, earlier today we met out here some patients who were full of praise for the work that the staff do here at the Royal, and I want to acknowledge that because they are challenging jobs and in a challenging environment and we want to do all we can to support people working in these environments and it was great to hear those patients say so many strongly positive things about the approach from staff and the service that they've been provided with.
With the new site nurse working within this area, that is an important part of this investment continuing on. We want to see skilled people, highly skilled nurses in those positions that can take the stress out of and strains away from the rest of the operations of the emergency department.
And lastly I want to point out that this package includes a $3.8 million investment in the emergency department in Burnie, the North-West Regional Hospital. Now, you'll note that this was a hospital that under a Liberal government was set up as a quasi-private/public but largely privatised building.
A Labor Government has bought that back and we've bought it back because we want to invest for the future and there was no other way of doing it. This is our first investment for the future and we'll see significant improvements in the investment we're making here at Hobart, in Launceston and also in Burnie, so right across the State, together with the Rudd Labor Government, we are making investments now that will have a real impact on emergency presentations in the very near future.
PM: Over to you, folks.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: Well, the agreement between the Australian Government and the state and territory governments for the $750 million does go to improving the overall throughput of emergency departments nationwide. This is the first time the Australian Government has invested specifically in providing support for state and territory governments for emergency departments.
Secondly, it's also the first time the Australian Government's invested directly in the provision of specific support for elective surgery, each of which again has specific benchmarks attached to it, so none of these things are simply expressions of goodwill. They are conditional on improved throughput and improved performance.
In terms of that aspect of the deal, I don't know if the state health minister wished to comment further?
MINSTER GIDDINGS: I think you've covered it rather well, actually.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you see an inevitability to the takeover of public hospitals by the Federal Government?
PM: My attitude to the future of the health and hospital system is that we need to make proper preparations for the aging of our population. That is why going into the last federal election I said that we would develop a reform plan for the future of the country. I said we'd commission an independent commission of inquiry to provide us with such a blueprint. Doctor Bennett provided that draft blueprint around the middle of last year.
What we then said is that we would spend the last six months of last year and into early this year consulting with hospitals and health communities right across the nation. For those reasons, for example, I was here at Royal Hobart in October of last year, speaking at some length with the professionals here on their needs.
The final stage in the development of our long-term policy for hospitals is that we will now consult directly with the state and territory governments over the coming months to put our final proposal to them. We're in the midst of developing that proposal as we speak, and the reason we are being cautious and conservative in the development of that policy is that it affects each and every person that we've just seen outside there in the waiting room of accident and emergency here at Royal Hobart, those who've just had their limbs reconstructed in the orthopaedic section of the hospital, and each of those folk want to be absolutely confident we're going to get this right. Therefore, we're being thorough in our approach.
So in answer to the end point of your question, having gone through the process by which we get to it, we believe that the key thing is to get the outcome right for the Australian people, people of Tasmania. We will put a proposal to the states and territories. What we have said consistently is that if they accept that, well and good, and if they don't then we'd seek a mandate from the people in terms of the Commonwealth moving to take over the system.
That remains our position. The rubber will hit the road on all of that when we put our final proposal to the states and territories in the immediate months ahead.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister my new Premier standing to your left is in election mode at the moment, what do you think his chances are for re-election in March?
PM: Well, on the question of elections, those who judge us, as I've said on earlier occasions, are hard but fair and that's the good people of Tasmania and the good people of Australia. They look at what we have done and they look at our plans for the future and they'll make their own judgement, so I am perfectly comfortable and relaxed about the judgements which the people of Tasmania will apply here.
Can I say this about the cooperative relationship between ourselves and the Tasmanian government. The core to the wellbeing of working families is the state of the economy and whether you've got a job.
What we have here in Tasmania is a State economy which is performing as a tiger economy when measured against those of, the other States of Australia. When you look at the unemployment rate here, by national standards, this is one of the better unemployment rates, I think you're at 5.2 and the national rate is 5.5. Put that into a broader context. We have the second lowest unemployment rate of all the major advanced economies of the world who've been wrestling with the impact of the global financial crisis.
So when we look about, when we look at the question of the future of the State, the future of the nation, the number one priority is, what are we doing to support working families, what are we doing to support Australian families, what are we doing to support Tasmanian families? The number one priority within that is to do everything you can to make sure people have got a job. That's why we've acted strongly, early, decisively in our response to the global economic recession.
That's why we have the second lowest employment rates of all the major advanced economies world wide, because we did that and in partnership with the investments of the Tasmanian State Government, you have a State economy here which is powering ahead as one of the nation's tiger economies. That, I believe, is the underpinnings of so much else of what we can talk about when it comes to the record of achievement and our plans for the future, but the economy is first and fundamental to all, it's strong nationally, it's strong here within the State and that's because government policy has been heading in the right direction.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on Haiti, why have you taken the decision to send money rather than Australian defence personnel and contribute in that way?
PM: The advice that we've received from the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Minister is that on the ground in Haiti, there is considerable problems in the physical coordination of personnel on the ground. Therefore it would be unwise to compound those problems unless specifically invited to do so. Were the government there in Haiti to invite specific personnel assistance we, of course, consistent with our tradition world wide, would be willing and able to provide assistance. However, the immediate and urgent need from UN agencies and the other international agencies is for cash. That is why - it is quickly deliverable. It is quickly receivable and, hopefully, quickly dispersible in terms of food and water and shelter on the ground. That's why we've acted in the way in which we've done.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister we've had some serious instances of cyber crime lately. How concerned are you of those and what advice would you offer Australians after people have been hacking into Internet Explorer and such things?
PM: Well, cyber security is a big challenge for government's world wide. You would have seen recent debates internationally about this. You would have seen a recent initiative, also, by the Defence Minister, John Faulkner, in Canberra, launching our new National Centre for Cyber Security in the nation's capital, and beyond that, of course, there are challenges for cyber security as far as the commercial sector is concerned and individuals as well.
This is an emerging challenge for all Australians and therefore it's a space in to which the Australian Government is now moving decisively. There are a lot of people who wish to hack-in in an unauthorised way into the secure communications of individuals, of corporations and governments. Our job is to defend that to the greatest extent possible. That's why we've made a very significant investment in the Defence portfolio with the new centre for cyber security there. It will be the first of a number of steps you'll see unfolded in the period ahead.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister ,can I ask about the unions threats not to participate in the NAPLAN testing and your response to what possibilities you might (inaudible)?
PREMIER BARTLETT: I'll pick up if you want. I'll say this - just recently, the Deputy Prime Minister and I signed a landmark $168 million investment in Tasmanian schools. We were the first State to do so because I can inform you that the strategic directions and the approaches that we had, the Rudd Labor Government and the Bartlett Labor Government, to education are absolutely aligned. They are aligned on literacy and numeracy, they are aligned in early years, they are aligned in disadvantage. They are aligned in teacher quality and they are absolutely aligned when it comes to using data and evidence for improvement. We were, in fact, the first State to put online all of our school data and I note now, federally, all other States have signed up and this is happening.
Now, we've been doing that for two years and I say this to the AEU, guess what, the sky has not fallen in and, in fact, guess what also, parents are saying to me this isn't causing us to leave a school or choose a school so much as it's causing us to engage in our children's education. It gives them a tool to talk to the teacher, talk to the school principals, become engaged in the school community and asses where improvement needs to happen and how they can make a contribution. Anything we can do, as a government, that engages parents and the wider community in the classroom with teaching and learning and it is data and evidence led improvement is great for education.
I say to the AEU, be careful what you wish for. Is really what you are calling for the 12 years of a Howard government that allowed education, particularly public education, to drift, to lack investment, to see teacher salaries in real terms drop? These are the sorts of things that you don't want to go back to. We are moving forward but we must move forward based on data and improving outcomes for all Tasmanians and all Australian children.
PM: As Prime Minister of the country I believe that all parents, everywhere, deserve to have this sort of information available to them about their school's performance. It's pretty basic in my view, and the content of what's proposed here, it's not exactly really radical stuff. On the MySchool website which the Australian Government will be launching on the 28th of January, it will have a profile page which will include the number of students at the school - that's pretty radical. The number of teachers at the school - that's pretty radical. Attendance rates, year 12 retention rate, the school index of what's called the community-socio-economic educational advantage value and finally the school NAPLAN results compared with the national average and the average results for statistically similar schools. What's NAPLAN? It's a national assessment of literacy and numeracy of students in year three, year five, year seven and year nine, held in May of each year.
My question is simply this - why shouldn't the parents of Australia have access to that information on a website about the school that they choose to send their kids to? I think it's pretty basic, so that's our approach.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the threatened boycott both from teachers and the government (inaudible)?
PM: Well, as the Deputy Prime Minister said, I believe earlier today, we reserve to ourselves all options in how we would deal with any such contingency which arises from our good friends in the Australian Education Union. You know something? I think it's time we all got with the project. I think it's time we got serious about the future.
This Government, the Australian Government, is committed to building Australia's future, building a future for Australian families. The cornerstones of that are building our health and hospital system for the future, building our education and school system for the future through stronger investments and greater quality control, and on top of that building our economy and providing jobs for working families.
One of those cornerstones is the future of our schools and I think all the mums and dads in Australia would be saying, 'I deserve to have access to that information about the performance of my kid's school' and that's all we are saying.
JOURNALIST: Polls today, (inaudible) are you concerned about that and I guess you'd sort of start looking towards the next election and think it's going to be much tighter more likely?
PM: You know ,in the two years that I've been Prime Minister and three years that I've been leader of the parliamentary Labor party I've had one policy, which is not to comment on polls as they go up and as they go down because my focus is on the national interest.
The other thing I'd say is this - the Government's focus is taking decisions, hard decisions, in the national interest - on the economy, on climate change, on health, on hospitals, on schools and some of those decisions will not be popular. Taking decisions in the national interest on climate change may not be popular for some. Decisions for the national interest need to be taken for the future otherwise, let me tell you, we place the future at risk. Having said that folks I've really got to start moving. Got a last one?
JOURNALIST: On the ETS Prime Minister, can you give an outline as to what implications that might that have on grocery prices, concerned with, maybe, like, bread and milk?
PM: What we've always said is that if you go back to the Treasury modelling which we released at the time that we put out the Government's policy, that the overall impact on the consumer price index would be 1.1 percent, up to a top range of 1.9 percent. That is clear, it is based on Treasury modelling.
I notice that when those opposite talk about the price impact on families of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, when challenged as to what the basis of their numbers is they run and they hide because they have plucked it out of space - they plucked it out of space.
We have Treasury, the Commonwealth Treasury, produce modelling against our proposal to act on climate change, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It has calculated what the impact on price would be for families. It has reached those conclusions I've just described and as a consequence of that the Government's policy has provided compensation arrangements for lower income families and for middle income families. That's clear, that's our policy.
The alternative is one) no policy, 2) plucking numbers out of space. I mean, the Opposition was challenged recently about their claims on certain numbers about the impact on price. They went running for cover because they have no independent modelling of their own.
Thanks folks, better run.
(ENDS)