Daniel Andrews holds out against a federal hospital funding deal

PREMIER Daniel Andrews refuses a national hospital funding deal worth $7b over concerns it won’t cover increasing demand.

PREMIER Daniel Andrews looms as the strongest holdout to a national hospital funding deal that would direct an extra $7 billion to Victorian hospitals by 2025.

The leaders of New South Wales and Western Australia signed on to the new agreement at Friday’s Council of Australian Governments summit, with the other states confirming they wanted to lock in the five-year deal by the end of the year.

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Mr Andrews said he could not agree “at this stage” because the extra cash from the Commonwealth was capped at 6.5 per cent a year and would not cover increasing demand from public hospital patients.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was a generous deal, and revealed a separate health funding spat with Victoria — with Mr Andrews claiming the state is owed $104 million — would be resolved in the coming months.

Mr Andrews and Mr Turnbull also held productive discussions about selling Victoria’s 29 per cent stake in Snowy Hydro to the ­Commonwealth.

The federal government wants to buy out the states as part of its planned Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme, which Mr Andrews said was vital for “energy supply and security”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews at a COAG press conference. Picture: Kym Smith

A price-tag has not been agreed upon but Snowy Hydro is valued at up to $10 billion, putting Victoria’s share about $3 billion.

Mr Turnbull said the leaders hoped to complete the sale shortly, with final talks likely to centre on how the money would be spent by the states.

Mr Andrews, who was accused of lying by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, said the new hospital deal would not work without changes to Medicare and the aged-care system.

“There is an obligation that all of us work together ... so people are getting the right care in the right place and that costly avoidable hospital admissions are not happening,” he said.

The Herald Sun revealed last month that hospitals were dealing with an average of more than 1700 Victorians a day seeking ­medical care their GPs could provide.

The COAG meeting was also marked by a renewed fight over plans to overhaul the GST carve-up, with Labor state prem­iers disagreeing over WA’s push to increase their share at the expense of Victoria and South Australia.

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