Albanese says he’ll negotiate with premiers on hospital funding

Labor leader Anthony Albanese will negotiate with state premiers on their call for about $20.5 billion in funding for public hospitals if he forms government at the May 21 election but has stopped short of promising the money.

Albanese pointed to the growing Commonwealth debt, which is approaching $1 trillion, to explain why he would not commit the additional spending ahead of the election when Labor and Liberal premiers have united on the funding call.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said he was not going to promise something he could not deliver in government.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk voiced her support for the increased funding at a press conference in Brisbane on Monday, where she stood alongside Albanese before they joined union members and others on a Labour Day march to the city’s showgrounds.

Under the current hospital funding arrangement, the federal government pays 45 per cent of the growth in costs, with a 6.5 per cent annual cap. Whichever party wins the election will have to negotiate a new agreement to begin in 2025, with states and territories pushing for the Commonwealth share to be raised to 50 per cent and the growth cap to be abolished.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told this masthead the states and territories would have to carry a $5 billion cost if the federal government did not negotiate a new deal on 50:50 growth funding for public hospitals, but Albanese did not back the call when asked on Monday.

“What we will do is sit down with premiers constructively and work these issues through,” Albanese said.

“We know the pressure that’s there on the hospital systems. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve put forward, for example, urgent care clinics. Urgent care clinics are aimed at taking pressure off emergency departments because we know that emergency departments are under such pressure.”

The urgent care clinic policy promises $135 million for 50 clinics around the country providing services from GPs that are meant to take the load off emergency departments at public hospitals.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid said it was “not good enough” for Albanese to promise to negotiate over hospital funding, saying Labor’s position was no different to the Coalition’s.

“Of course they’ll negotiate ... That doesn’t mean they’ll actually come to the party when it comes to the funding,” Khorshid said.

But Albanese said he was not going to promise something he could not deliver in government.

“We’re not promising things in advance and then we’ll say something different after the election campaign. What we’re doing is being very clear,” he said

“I’m aware that premiers would like increased funding. Premier Palaszczuk has raised it with me.”

Albanese noted that all premiers wrote to the government last year to ask for a solution to the growth funding dispute, and that Commonwealth debt was near $1 trillion.

“So that is why we are being very responsible, very measured, in the proposals that we have put.”

The federal government raised its contribution to 50 per cent for COVID-19 related hospital spending during the coronavirus pandemic, but this ends in September.

Former Health Department secretary Stephen Duckett has argued for a two-year extension of the 50:50 funding arrangement to help public hospitals deal with an elective surgery backlog and the pressure on emergency departments.

Andrews told this masthead the states would be hit with about $5 billion in costs, including $1.5 billion for Victoria, without a resolution with Canberra.

“Whoever wins the federal election, they will need to deal with these issues,” he said. “And I think they will face a united team of first ministers [premiers and chief ministers] who are speaking up on behalf of patients and speaking up on behalf of the people that they serve.”

AMA vice-president Dr Chris Moy said the states needed “emergency funding” from the Commonwealth to help fix the hospital crisis in the next three years, before the 2025 agreement kicked in.

“If you don’t have enough beds and not enough doctors and nurses, you can’t get enough care,” Moy said. “That’s why we’re seeing people dying on a relatively regular basis, because they can’t get emergency care ... We really need to plan towards expanding capacity to be able to provide the care that people need.”

A major Sydney hospital is reviewing the circumstances of the death of a man who died on an ambulance stretcher after waiting an hour for a bed in the emergency department. Earlier this month, a man died after waiting more than three hours for admission into an emergency department at a hospital in Victoria.

Both states are grappling with ambulance ramping due to hospital bed and staff shortages, compounded with soaring triple zero calls, and tens of thousands of patients waiting longer than recommended for elective surgery.

Palaszczuk urged Australians to vote for Albanese and remove Scott Morrison from power. She said she believed the Labor leader would listen to the premiers on hospital funding and took a shot at the prime minister for not putting the issue on the agenda at recent meetings of the national cabinet.

“It is no secret that all of the premiers and the chief ministers from all political persuasions are calling for more health funding,” she said. “We’ve had two years of a global pandemic. It’s put pressure on our hospitals. I know with Anthony, he will listen.

“We’ll be able to work with [Albanese], not someone who won’t even allow it to be on the agenda at national cabinet.”

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