Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The previous government simply absented the field, pulled billions of dollars out of the public hospital system in the country, pushed that responsibility onto the states and territories and then played the blame game. That is exactly what they did—year in, year out.

This government takes a different approach because Australians want an answer to this problem. They do not want excuses for inaction. That is why the government has sat down these last nine months with the states and territories, through the agency of the Minister for Health and Ageing and with the Treasurer, to go through the future shape of the Australian healthcare agreement for the following five years. That will go to a proper role for Commonwealth funding into the future. That is the responsible course of action. We intend to prosecute it, rather than simply pull money out of the system and say, ‘It’s all over to you.’

The individual management of hospitals within any particular state, including those to which the honourable member has just referred, is of course an operational responsibility for the state health authority concerned.

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