Annastacia Palaszczuk’s shift on health funding

Annastacia Palaszczuk claims Queenslanders are still getting a ‘fair deal’ on health funding, ­despite Anthony Albanese rejecting her pleas for a 50-50 split on public hospital costs.

Annastacia Palaszczuk and Anthony Albanese at Brisbane’s Cross River Rail project on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

Annastacia Palaszczuk claims Queenslanders are still getting a “fair deal” on health funding, ­despite Anthony Albanese rejecting her pleas for a 50-50 split on public hospital costs.

The Premier and her cabinet used the funding arrangement to wedge the Morrison government in the lead-up to the federal election, saying there was “nothing more important than families getting good access to healthcare”. But now with Labor in power and Mr Albanese rejecting demands for the commonwealth to pick up half the tab rather than the pre-pandemic 45 per cent, Ms Palaszczuk’s criticisms have ­quietened.

“We are getting a fair deal, and don’t forget, too, we’ve actually put in over $9bn in health infrastructure in our budget and of course there are other issues that I know that the federal government’s looking at,” she said.

“You may remember the first meeting we had where we spoke about how important health was, the Prime Minister put money on the table. That’s the first time that’s happened.”

Under pressure from state and territory leaders, Mr Albanese in June agreed to a three-month ­extension of a Covid-19 arrangement in which the common-wealth pays 50 per cent of extra health costs associated with the pandemic.

The extension, until December, will cost about $760m and after the pandemic, expenses will be split in the same way as other public medical costs, where the federal government pays 45 per cent. “The Premier has indicated that the first national cabinet meeting we had, I extended the funding for health,” Mr Albanese said. “My government is very committed to strengthening Medicare and will work co-operatively with state and territory governments, working those issues through.”

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton said she hoped Ms Palaszczuk was still advocating for the split to address overflowing emergency departments, ambulance ramping and the backlog of essential surgery. “It is very disappointing to hear there is still no commitment from the Albanese government to increase hospital funding,” she said.