Smith, Roxon, Durack, Press Conference, Perth
Louise Durack,Nicola Roxon,Stephen Smith
posted Monday, 2 August 2010
E & O E – PROOF ONLY
Subjects: Princess Margaret Hospital surgical theatres, Pakistan floods, Leadership in Uruzgan Province, Cluster Munitions Convention, Abbott cuts Overseas Development Assistance, Julia Gillard and Campaign, Federal and State negotiations on health budget in Western Australia
STEPHEN SMITH: I'm very pleased to welcome the Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon to Perth, and particularly to Princess Margaret Hospital which, of course, is one of the iconic hospitals in Perth and Western Australia.
I'll throw to Nicola. She'll make some remarks. I've then got a couple of foreign policy comments to make and then we're very happy to respond to your questions.
NICOLA ROXON: Thanks very much. Thanks for joining us here Stephen and, of course, we're also here with Louise Durack, who is the candidate for Stirling. Louise and I have just been this morning, to Osborne Park to look at half a million dollars of investment in Osborne Park to fund a new pre-admissions clinic.
So it was great to be able to see at Osborne Park what the $500,000 worth of Commonwealth investment has done there, to fund a new pre-admissions clinic. And that allows people to be able to move through their surgery more quickly and, of course, is of great benefit to the many elective surgery patients who go through Osborne Park each and every day.
And it gives me great pleasure to be here at Princess Margaret Hospital to look at what three and a half million dollars worth of Commonwealth investment has done in paying particularly for an additional elective surgery theatre, but also the reconfiguration of many of the other services.
What that means is that a lot of extra surgery, in the two months that this new theatre has been operational, has been able to go ahead more quickly, without additional cancellations if there are emergency patients that need to be seen. And obviously this is part of the Commonwealth's determination to work in partnership with state and territory governments, to deliver better benefits and better care for patients.
So this money came from a 2008 agreement with Premier Barnett. It's showing that Commonwealth investments are already delivering extra services to patients, and particularly here to children, because of the Commonwealth's investments. But we would like to do more of that.
There is more money on the table for Western Australia. Of course, we don't think it's likely that we'll reach an agreement with Premier Barnett during our election campaign. But we're very hopeful that after the election, if we're successful, we'll be able to resume those discussions and make sure that the $350 million, $80 million of which is available for elective surgery, will flow to the benefit of the West Australian community.
I might make the point, at the same time, billions of extra dollars of investment are already flowing into Western Australia because of action that the Gillard Government has taken. To date, we have not seen a health policy, or a hospital policy, from the Liberal Party at all. We know that health services and hospital services are vital to the community and I call on the Liberal Party to set out what it is they intend to do, to invest more in hospitals, to make sure that patients can be seen more quickly, because time is running out.
They have not produced a single policy in the last three years and I think the public's entitled to know what they intend to do in this important area.
I'm going to hand over to Stephen who's got some other comments and we'll take whatever questions you've got.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well thanks very much Nicola.
I'm announcing today that Australia will contribute $5 million to Pakistan for the victims of the terrible floods that we've seen in the last few days in north-west Pakistan. Two million dollars will be for immediate emergency assistance; food, water, shelter and the like and $3 million for longer term assistance.
We already know that somewhere in the vicinity of 1100 people have been killed as a result of the floods caused by the terrible rains. There's also very grave concerns and risks so far as cholera is concerned. So $5 million of humanitarian emergency assistance for the victims of the floods in Pakistan.
Secondly, can I also just take the opportunity of mentioning that yesterday, 1 August, we saw a new command structure in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan. We compliment the Dutch on their good efforts over the last four years and we're very pleased with the smooth and orderly transition to the new combined team, Oruzgan, in Afghanistan over the weekend.
Can I also indicate that we saw, yesterday, the Cluster Munitions Convention come into effect. I was very pleased to represent Australia in 2008, when I signed on behalf of Australia the Cluster Munitions Treaty. Australia played a leading role in bringing that Convention to the table and we're, of course, going through our own ratification procedures. That, of course, requires consultation with the States and the Territories and implementing legislation through the Commonwealth Parliament. But if we are re-elected we will, of course, once those procedures have taken place, ratify, ourselves, the Cluster Munitions Convention.
Finally, can I make the point that it's taken a very long time for Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey and the Liberal Party to put some of their proposals into the formal costings process.
But I noticed over the weekend that one of the areas they had submitted was a $300 million cut so far as development assistance is concerned. That flies in the face of assurances that Tony Abbot has previously given, that the Liberal Party would not cut our overseas development assistance.
The Labor Government is, of course, absolutely committed to reaching 0.5 per cent of gross national income by 2015/16. All we've seen from Tony Abbott, in breach of an expressed commitment that he's given, is a $300 million cut out of our overseas development assistance.
I'm happy to hand back to Nicola and we're happy to respond to your questions.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, Julia Gillard said this morning that she was going to scrap the campaign tactic she's been using so far and reveal more of herself to voters. What does that say about what she's been doing in the last few weeks?
STEPHEN SMITH: I must say I was very pleased with the way in which Julia campaigned in Perth over the last couple of days. The point she's made today is that she wants the campaign to be much more out there. She's made the point that the tradition in Australian campaigns, federal campaigns of recent times, has been scripted, or staged, or pre-arranged events. She wants to make herself much more available in terms of contact with the Australian people.
I think it's very important. We've got three weeks to go. It's very important that people understand that this election is going to be very close and very tough. This will be a nail-biter. And if you follow the polls, over the weekend and today, if the election had been held on Saturday, Tony Abbott would have been Prime Minister.
So what I think Julia Gillard, as Prime Minister, wants to do is to get in direct contact with the Australian people, and have the Australian people focus on the real choice. The real choice here is do you want Julia Gillard as Prime Minister, or do you want Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, and all the cuts to services, including health, including hospitals, including education, that that would bring.
QUESTION: So is it then panic driven, because of the polls?
STEPHEN SMITH: I don't think that in the Labor Party we needed any polls to let us know that this would be a tough and tight campaign. We've been saying that for some time. I hope that commentators on the election campaign have now caught up with the fact that this is a very close contest; that if you believe the polls, the two polls that featured over the weekend and today, if the election had been on Saturday, Tony Abbott would have been elected as Prime Minister.
So people need to start focusing on that. Do you want the Liberal Party and Tony Abbott running the country? Do you want the cuts to health, the cuts to education, and the cuts to infrastructure that that would bring? And that's the stark contrast, I think, the Prime Minister now wants to bring to the campaign and bring that into the fore and into the focus and that's a good thing.
QUESTION: Who is the real Julia Gillard, and why haven't we seen her before?
STEPHEN SMITH: I just don't agree with the assumption that you have laid into your question with. Julia Gillard is a strong, tough, intelligent person. She wants to take the country forward. She's made it very clear she sees her priorities as a well managed economy, bringing the Budget back into surplus, which then sets the country up for investments in health, investment in education, investment in infrastructure.
When she was here on Friday and over the weekend, she made it clear that she wants to see significant investments occur in Western Australia and generally. Tony Abbott has made it clear that if he becomes Prime Minister those investments in education, those investments in health, and those investments in infrastructure will not occur.
QUESTION: Someone actually needs to…
NICOLA ROXON: Sorry, just before you do that, I might just add one of the comments here. Obviously the contrast between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott when it comes to health is like chalk and cheese. Mr Abbott has experience in the health portfolio, but the public experienced cuts to hospital services, a billion dollars ripped out of our hospitals, a cap on GP training places which had an enormous impact in Western Australia where there's been a serious shortage of GPs.
Over our time in government, we have been able to turn that investment around - 50 per cent increase in hospital funding, a doubling of GP training places. And Prime Minister Gillard is the person who wants to make a difference so that health services can continue to improve when Mr Abbott has spent his time as the Health Minister ignoring nursing shortages, ignoring GP shortages, and pulling money out of our hospitals.
So the real Julia Gillard and the real Tony Abbott are like chalk and cheese when it comes to health and hospital services. One is investing and providing more services and one wants to cut those services. And that will be very much at the forefront when it comes to election day on 21 August.
QUESTION: But Mr Smith, you just said, you know, she's going to make an effort to be more available to the Australian people. The opposite of that is saying that she was hiding. Is that what she was doing?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well again, I don't accept the assumption in that question.
QUESTION: But you just said she's making herself more available. What was she doing…
STEPHEN SMITH: The key word is more available. Those of you who followed the events that she took part in in Western Australia over Friday and the weekend, she was out there mixing it with people either in the community or in the workplace. She's made it clear she wants to do more of that. She wants to take the message which Nicola has just detailed in terms of health to the Australian people and make very clear the contrast.
The choice here - there's only one choice on offer - Julia Gillard as Prime Minister or Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. And just as Nicola has detailed the difference and the stark contrast in health, the same is true in education, taking computers out of schools, chopping off the education building programs, and chopping off the trades training centre.
In infrastructure, I've made the point before, you won't have the investment in the road system around the airport to increase our economic efficiency. You won't have the $2 billion worth of investment over 10 years in infrastructure that a re-elected Labor Government, a re-elected Gillard Prime Minister will bring to infrastructure in Western Australia.
QUESTION: Has that meant that you've not been cutting through then if Ms Gillard needs to do it more?
STEPHEN SMITH: I think what has not been cutting through is the focus on the choice and the contrast. I think it's taken until the last couple of days for people to start to appreciate that this is and always has been a very tough election for Labor. That this is not something where you can idly cast a vote as if you're somehow protesting or voting in a by-election. A vote for Tony Abbott has a necessary consequence: Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, and that's the contrast that the Prime Minister wants the Australian people to well and truly understand over the next three weeks.
NICOLA ROXON: And really, we need to be also asking the question: where is the real Tony Abbott? Where is his health policy? Why has he, less than three weeks from election day, refused and failed to release any detail of what he will do to invest in our hospitals here in Western Australia? What he will do to make sure that more nurses are going to be trained, a problem he neglected in government? What he will do to make sure there are more GP training places?
All we've seen so far is more cuts promised by Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party to health services, cuts to GP infrastructure, cuts to e-health investments, cuts to after-hours care. This will harm the community, and we need to understand and need to be asking where is Mr Abbott's policy on vital issues like healthcare.
QUESTION: You've called him Phony Tony before. Have we seen Phony Julia if we haven't seen the real Julia?
NICOLA ROXON: No, I reject that. I think the real question here is: what are the policies that our leaders are putting forward to the public? And when it comes to health, there is a very clear choice - Julia Gillard as the Prime Minister has a clear plan to invest more in health services, in more doctors, in more nurses, in more after-hours care.
Mr Abbott has no plan. We don't know what he intends to do. We just know what his record is, which is cutting funding to health services. So the real question is: where is Mr Abbott, where is his health policy, and when will the public have a real chance to compare the two?
QUESTION: Mr Abbott has said he will deliver GST carve-up when it comes to power. That's one of the stickling issues with the WA Government over here regarding the Health Report. Don't you think - you must understand that it's not fair that we've got to go from 8.1 per cent to 7.1 per cent under the Grants Commission, that we - would you look at that with…
NICOLA ROXON: We've made very clear that we want to continue discussions with Premier Barnett. Prime Minister Gillard has made clear that her door is open and Premier Barnett, to his credit, has made that point clear as well. We believe that these health reforms are vital and will benefit the West Australian community. We have extra investments on the table ready to be passed on to benefit the West Australian community as soon as an agreement can be reached.
Mr Abbott has no such plan. He hasn't clarified what sort of investments he would make in Western Australia or across the rest of the country. He can speculate about all sorts of things, but until we see his policies, we cannot be confident whether he will return to his old form, which is cutting health services and cutting hospital services. That's the real question that must be asked of Mr Abbott.
QUESTION: Can negotiations continue with the WA Government in caretaker mode, and will you be meeting either Kim Hames or Colin Barnett?
NICOLA ROXON: The discussions could continue, but I think that the Premier has made clear that he doesn't think it's appropriate for them to continue in earnest while we're in an election period. We hope that we will be re-elected, but this is a very, very close contest, and if we are elected, re-elected, this'll be one of the first things that we return to. It's vitally important for Western Australia that these extra investments are able to flow into emergency department care, into GP and nursing training places, and of course, into elective surgery and other investments. It'll be a top priority.
But the Premier has made clear that really, discussions cannot continue during this time, but both the Premier and Prime Minister have made clear that they are keen to continue those discussions at an appropriate time.
QUESTION: So there's no chance of an agreement entering the election period?
NICOLA ROXON: Well, I made clear when I was here last time that I thought it was very unlikely that we would be able to reach an agreement during the election period. I think that remains the case. It's very unlikely. Of course, if the Prime Minister and Premier can reach an agreement, that would be very good news for Western Australia.
But that money is earmarked and set aside for Western Australia, and we hope to be able to spend it for the benefit of the West Australian community very soon.
QUESTION: Are you still seriously considering directing it to non-government organisations instead?
NICOLA ROXON: We've made clear that there is a pool of an additional $350-odd million available for the West Australian community. We think the most effective and efficient way to spend that money is in partnership with the State Government, and the evidence of that we've seen today in looking at the new elective surgery theatre here at Princess Margaret Hospital, looking at the new pre-admissions clinic at Osborne Park. Partnerships work. Partnerships can deliver more to the community, and we think that's the most effective way to spend the money.
If we can't reach an agreement, we will make sure that that money can be spent for the benefit of the West Australian community in other ways. But we've made clear our preference is to do that with the West Australian Government, and we intend to pursue that path.
QUESTION: Can I just have one more question?
STEPHEN SMITH: Quick.
QUESTION: The Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie. The chairman of Diggers and Dealers describes the mining tax as economic terrorism, and urged the 2000 delegates there to vote Liberal. How do you respond to that?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, firstly, in an election campaign - and I've made this point before - anyone is entitled to put advertisements to air. But when they put advertisements to air, you need to understand they're clearly done in a political context. It's quite clear these advertisements are nothing more, nothing less than an effort to politically support the Liberal Party. And that is echoed by the remarks we've seen this morning from the Diggers and Dealers conference.
So I think the community in Western Australia need to very carefully understand that this advertising campaign is aimed and intended to assist the Liberal Party. It is aimed and intended to help elect Tony Abbott as Prime Minister. And if Tony Abbott is elected Prime Minister, there'll be none of the health and hospital services that the Health Minister has referred to, none of the education services that I've referred to, and none of the infrastructure that will benefit the people of Western Australia.
This very clear point needs to be made. You do not pay the tax unless you make a profit of $50 million or more. You do not pay the tax unless you make a profit of $50 million or more in a year.
So what we've seen today quite clearly graphically exposed is that these advertisements are no more nor no less than an effort to politically help Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party win the election. And the community of Western Australia needs to view them in that light.
Thanks very much. Cheers.
Tags: Abbott, cuts, Durack, Hospital, Margaret, Roxon, Smith