Prime Minister tells state to cut spending if they want funding commitment

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Outraged at the Prime Minister's demands to rein in public hospital spending the states have united calling on the Commonwealth to honour a deal made in 2023. But Anthony Albanese has reminded them public hospitals are primarily their responsibility.

Transcript

00:00The perfect brew for a funding blue.

00:09Holding cabinet in a state enjoying budget bounties.

00:13This is my 38th visit to Western Australia.

00:17Anthony Albanese has been seeking to protect his own bottom line,

00:21writing to the states and territories,

00:23telling them to rein in their public hospital spending growth

00:26if they want the Commonwealth to pick up a greater share of costs.

00:30They're the ones that signed up to it and so they should honour that.

00:33I think it beggars belief because the question is, how do we do that?

00:36Do we turn patients away?

00:37The states came out in protest,

00:40arguing a deal for the Commonwealth to lift its funding share to 42.5%

00:45by the end of the decade was agreed to two years ago.

00:49Our hospitals are continuing to face increasing demand

00:52and we can't close the doors.

00:54Ministers pushing back on the demands

00:56and pointing to their hospitals being flooded

00:59with stranded aged care and NDIS patients.

01:03It's a national disgrace.

01:04The federal government needs to step up

01:06and take responsibility for aged care patients.

01:08Hold the front page of every paper in the country.

01:11Premiers want more money.

01:13Are you backtracking making money?

01:15No.

01:16There's a few fundamental jobs that they have.

01:18One is the public hospital system.

01:21After being returned to power partly on the strength of its health promises,

01:25the federal government now finds itself straddling heightened expectations

01:29and the reality of a budget deep in deficit.

01:32The states can't control the number of people needing care,

01:35but Anthony Albanese is signalling the next round of negotiations

01:39will be tougher than the last.

01:43The state of their local government for more than 2 years,

01:46but also the state of the local government should be proprietor,

01:50and the state of the state to the state is a beautiful project of the region.

01:52The state of the state of the state and the state of the state of the state

01:54and the state of the state of the state was weak.

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