Australian Medical Association welcomes prospect of COAG funding deal
Date
March 27, 2016
Sydney Morning Herald
Catherine King criticised the potential funding deal, calling it a short-term fix to silence state leaders in the lead-up to the federal election.
The doctors' peak body has hailed the prospect of a $7 billion emergency hospitals funding deal between Canberra and the states as a welcome break from the policies of the previous Abbott government.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will meet premiers and chief ministers on Friday for a much-anticipated Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, with health and education funding at the top of the agenda.
As well as extra money for hospitals, the leaders will also discuss NSW Premier Mike Baird's plan to spread out the final two years of Gonski school funding across four years.
The states have been pushing hard for the government to backtrack on an $80 billion cut to funding for schools and hospitals announced by the Abbott government in its first budget.
Mr Turnbull has assured state leaders he would provide interim funding in the May budget to help meet the growing costs of running their hospitals.
Mr Turnbull has said hospital funding is "a big issue", but stressed that any new spending would have to be paid for. Treasurer Scott Morrison has stressed that, unlike the federal government, many states are in surplus.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA), which has been a fierce critic of many of the Coalition's health policies, welcomed the prospect of a COAG deal on hospitals.
"There is no doubt this will make a difference it means states and territories will be much better placed to preserve important hospital services," AMA President Brian Owler said.
"People can argue about whether it should be $20 billion, but this would take a lot of pressure off the states.
"This has been going on since the 2014 budget. It is the No.1 policy issue in health that has to be sorted."
The AMA has warned that patients with life-threatening conditions such as cancer would have to wait longer for surgery, and emergency departments would be hit by delays unless the funding cuts were addressed.
But Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King slammed the potential deal as a short-term fix to silence state leaders in the lead-up to the federal election.
"This is patients once again being held hostage to Malcolm Turnbull's attempt to save his job with a pre-election bribe on hospital funding," she said.
Ms King said $7 billion in extra funding would be a "drop in the ocean" compared with $57 billion in funding reductions to hospitals announced in the 2014 budget.
Under a compromise proposal for schools made by Mr Baird, the federal government would pay $3.2 billion to the states over four years instead of $4.5 billion over two.
But this is likely to face strong resistance from other states, especially the Labor states, who are demanding Labor's six-year Gonski funding deals be honoured in full.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham recently blasted the states and territories for having the "gall" to complain about insufficient federal education funding when they have failed to invest in their own schools.
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A Short Term Fix To Silence State Leaders (Read 606 times)
