Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This confirms that senators ought to listen to the primary answer and not just read the supplementary question that the tactics committee has provided for them. I provided the answer to that question in the primary response. I indicated that there will be a jointly governed National Health and Hospitals Network funding authority in each state and territory. That was agreed at COAG. That means that for the first time funding from both levels of government will be used to pay for services directly and will not be paid from or administered by state treasuries or health departments. The original proposal would have still had some state funding provided by state government bureaucracies without transparency. So it does represent an unprecedented level of transparency in health funding. There will not, therefore, be the possibility for state government funding to be shuffled around in state budgets or skimmed for other purposes.