Malcolm Turnbull to ditch Tony Abbott’s massive cuts to state hospital funding: report

PREMIER Jay Weatherill has branded a likely deal with the Commonwealth to reverse billions of dollars in health cuts a “bandaid on a much bigger wound”.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull holds a press conference with Minister for Environment Greg Hunt at Bloomberg offices in Sydney. Pic Brett Costello

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PREMIER Jay Weatherill has branded a likely deal with the Commonwealth to reverse billions of dollars in health cuts a “bandaid on a much bigger wound”.

Mr Weatherill will meet with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Treasurer Scott Morrison and other state premiers in Sydney later this week.

Mr Turnbull is reportedly prepared to ditch at least some of Tony Abbott’s massive cuts to state hospital funding.

While a deal has not been finalised, but the states are confident they will be offered a four-year hospital funding agreement to 2020 based on the original formula agreed under the Gillard Labor Government.

Mr Weatherill said he’d received a preliminary call from Mr Turnbull and understood there may be an interim offer.

He said it was a $5 billion bandaid for a $57 billion problem.

“Any contribution would be welcome because the size of the problem is enormous,” he said.

“It’s likely to be a bandaid on a much bigger wound.”

Former treasurer Joe Hockey’s first budget, delivered in May 2014 when Mr Abbott was prime minister, included $57 billion in cuts to hospitals over the next decade.

After the cuts were announced in the 2014 Budget, SA Health Minister Jack Snelling said the decision to axe the national partnerships agreement and renege on the national health reform agreement would cost SA about $600 million.

Mr Snelling said the state faced a “full-blown crisis” because of the cuts and the State Government subsequently announced the Transforming Health project, which has led to a series of controversial decisions and closures.

The new deal will reportedly be tied to a tax reform proposal under which the states will be offered a share of income tax beyond 2020 to fund health and education.

Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison on the weekend mapped out the health funding compromise to present to state premiers and treasurers at Friday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting.

Mr Weatherill has released figures showing tens of thousands of patients would be left untreated if the hospital funding black hole was not filled.

He said the Ernst & Young report found, by 2024/25, more than 107,000 patients each year would be left untreated in the public system as a result of the $4 billion cut to the state’s hospitals. That would push more people to the private health system, driving premiums up an extra 0.5 per cent each year.

“The states and territories simply cannot afford to bear the brunt of these cuts,” Mr Weatherill said.

“It was a substantial reason for Mr Abbott’s demise and it remains the unfinished business of Mr Turnbull’s leadership.”

He said Australia was not collecting enough revenue and broadening the base of the GST was a discussion that needed to be had.

“It’s what every serious review into our tax system has told us.”

Senior clinicians from major hospitals across Adelaide have signed letters condemning parts of the Transforming Health blueprint.

The Australian said the new agreement would be tied to a revolutionary tax reform proposal under which the states would be offered a share of income tax beyond 2020 to fund health and education.