Premiers hail accord on hospital reform

STATE leaders have welcomed the breakthrough on the health agreement, saying they back measures for transparency in the hospital system.

STATE and territory leaders last night welcomed the breakthrough on the health agreement, saying they backed new measures for transparency in the hospital system.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett, who had refused to sign up to Kevin Rudd's health makeover last April, said that once Julia Gillard took the GST off the table - which he had previously described as a "show stopper" - it opened the door for last night's agreement.

The new deal does not require the states and territories to hand over one-third of their GST, but guarantees the federal government will become a 50-50 partner in growth funding.

"We've had over 12 hours of meetings and discussions ... There has been in my opinion a fair degree of goodwill and give and take on all sides," Mr Barnett said. "The work that is to be done now is the detailed mechanics of the structure of the bodies we established and how funds will flow and how the hospital system will be managed."

Mr Barnett, however, signalled that Ms Gillard's "year of delivery" would not be all smooth sailing and that he would continuing digging in over her revised mining tax deal. "I don't think we are going to proceed smoothly on the mining tax," he said.

His Liberal counterpart, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, said he was very pleased to sign up to the new agreement, which dealt with the issues of concern they had with the previous agreement former premier John Brumby signed in last year.

"This will be a substantial gain for Victorians and obviously a substantial gain for Australia, and to have everybody on board is significant," he said.

Mr Baillieu said transparency was crucial to all the leaders during the discussions.

"We were explicit in our desire to see transparency in resolving these issues and I think that's going to be an important development as well to ensure we do share the growth the funding and we do share the responsibilities ," he said.

NSW Labor Premier Kristina Keneally backed the move towards greater oversight.

"We were very pleased to come here today and achieve what is truly national health reform. For NSW, the health reform has meant a significant boost in funding ... that's why my bottom line was to keep the beds, the money and the growth money," she said.

Ms Keneally said the extra funding would have been at risk over time without all the states signing up, and the deal would have started to unravel.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann said he was pleased the Council of Australian Governments had agreed to have a special session on mental health.

But NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell, widely tipped to win the state election next month, said earlier he would not give a blank cheque to any agreement Ms Keneally signed. "We will go through the fine detail before we sign up to anything, because taxpayers in this state, frankly, have been taken for a ride one too many times," Mr O'Farrell told the Ten Network's Meet the Press.