Hospital funds ‘band-aid’

Labor claims Turnbull’s $ 5 billion hospital offer is a ‘ drop in the ocean’

A BAND-AID solution to address the $80 billion hospital and school funding shortfall left by the Abbott government’s 2014 budget appears to be in the offing.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday he could not confirm reports of a $5 billion promise.

Premiers and Mr Turnbull will meet on Friday in a COAG meeting they hope will signal an end to the funds shortfall, despite South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill describing the pledge as a “band-aid solution”.

Mr Weatherill and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk were expected to demand the return of the $57 billion cut from hospitals and $23 billion cut from school funding.

Those cuts, first proposed in Treasurer Joe Hockey’s first budget in 2014, were due to take effect from July.

State governments have previously said the cut would affect services at hospitals and schools nationwide, and Mr Turnbull appears keen to resolve the issue ahead of the election.

Mr Turnbull said he would be “presenting” pre- miers with “a proposal that’s obviously under discussion at the moment”, but would not be drawn on the specifics ahead of Friday.

Labor federal health spokeswoman Catherine King said she had seen reports of $1 billion, $5 billion and $7 billion being offered, but no matter what figure it was, it was “a drop in the ocean” compared to the budget cuts.

Ms Palaszczuk said she wanted to see the detail of the proposed offer, given Queenslanders were facing $11.8 billion being cut from the state’s health system.

She said Friday’s meeting presented Mr Turnbull with a chance to restore the funding, without which “there will be fewer doctors and fewer nurses than we will need”.

Treasurer Scott Morrison, who met Mr Turnbull ahead of media reports of the funding offer, told 2GB Radio that “if we have to spend more money, then we have to find savings to do that”.

“And if we’re going to have any increases in revenue then we will use that wherever, and always to reduce taxes in other areas,” he said.

“We will see what happens on Friday.”