This guy cuts $616 million from the Victorian health budget and complains about Labor withdrawing $107 million. Is this guy kidding or what? I think it is high time the red tape was cut out from services anyway and in particular health services. The federal government must take sole responsibility of these services to cut out the constant politicking and blame game, which essentially is disrespecting peoples lives. Howard blamed states and states blamed howard, Gillard blames states and states blame Gillard, it has to stop and the only way to do it is cut out the unnecessary middle man.....the state governments. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday, February 21, 2013 ยป 05:12pm Prime Minister Julia Gillard has accused the Victorian Premier of a 'grand act of incompetence' in his handling of the state's hospital funding and warned other states they too could have their budgets rearranged. The Labor federal government has sought to appease patients and resolve an ongoing dispute with the state by bypassing the Liberal government and paying $107 million directly to hospital administrators. But Victoria will be penalised for the additional hospital funding, with Labor set to strip the state of $107 million in other commonwealth payments. Ms Gillard dismissed Victoria's claims the federal government had used faulty population data to slash $475 million from the state's health budget over four years, including $107 million this financial year. Instead, she accused Premier Ted Baillieu of cutting $616 million from state hospitals and mounting a 'very dishonest campaign' about healthcare funding. 'This is a grand act of incompetence by Premier Baillieu which will be judged by the Victorian people,' Ms Gillard told reporters in Adelaide. 'He could have kept money flowing to health. He deliberately decided not to do it. 'Well, if he is going to play that kind of politics, I'm not going to see patients suffer, so we've gone round him. But the Gillard government's about-face on Victoria immediately led Queensland's Liberal National Party and NSW's coalition governments to demand the return of their states' funding. Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says his state will lose $103 million in federal funding this financial year. NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner says a similar population adjustment has left her state out of pocket to the tune of $50 million a year. 'This strange deal to directly fund hospitals in Victoria does not relieve the federal government of its responsibility to restore health funding to all states and territories,' Mrs Skinner told AAP. Ms Gillard warned any premier or chief minister thinking of mounting a Victorian-style campaign on hospital funding her government wouldn't tolerate them playing politics on health. 'There is a very clear message to those premiers - we will go around you, we will deal direct with hospitals and local hospital networks, and we will rearrange your budget,' she said. 'We will deal direct with hospitals and we will cut them back in another area.' Federal opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton believes the states are right to ask why Victoria is the only state to have its hospital funding effectively restored. 'Labor now needs to explain why a retrospective cut to hospital funding is still acceptable in NSW, Queensland and elsewhere,' he said in a statement. 'It is government incompetence at its worst.' Mr Baillieu described the decision by federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek as a 'sleight of hand'. 'This is a short-term political fix,' he said. In its mid-year budget update in October, the federal government said national health reform funding would be $245 million lower in 2012/13. Funding levels have been based on population growth outcomes, health price inflation and the lower cost of medical equipment due to the high Australian dollar.
You mean to say the Libs are doing a good job in Victoria? Teddy sucks as Premier. He's done nothing at all to make my state better.
Yes cos handing out billions of borrowed money is the only way leftists think a good job is being done
There is an overwhelming sense that this is the picture in Victoria from up here in NSW. It's obviously the same sentiment in QLD and NT. I can't say that O'Farrell has done anything significant. It seems to be a trait across all liberal governments, the less we do the less we can do wrong.
Nice to see you still have nothing of value to add to a thread. Now to the actual topic. Health should be a federal issue. I think state governments of both sides have failed when it comes to health and I don't see how the federal parliament could do worse. Just look at NSW. Both parties are useless when it comes to solving the issues related to health.
