Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

That is why when we met as COAG we agreed to establish those seven working groups—positive programs of long-term economic and social reform of a type which those opposite could not spell, let alone execute. And building on that, as of the March 2008 COAG, the Commonwealth provided a meaty allocation of $1 billion to relieve pressure on public hospitals, reversing the national trend of Commonwealth cutbacks to public hospitals—something which those opposite would prefer not to hear about. Secondly, despite the fact that they made great fanfare last year about the establishment of a Murray-Darling reform commission and a single entity for the governance of the basin, it took this government at the March 2008 COAG to establish that single entity. On top of that, COAG agreed on a national registration and accreditation system for health professionals as a major step in health workforce reform. Furthermore, on the business deregulation front, 27 areas of work were commissioned. And furthermore again, COAG agreed to the distribution of $150 million to build homes for homeless people.

This is a solid policy program of reform. It is about the nation’s future. It is about governments working with each other rather than just blaming each other. It is about where Australia wants to be in three years time, in five years time and in 10 years time. It responds to a deep mood in the country where people are fed up to the back teeth of governments simply blaming each other for everything that goes wrong. Instead, they have an expectation that people will behave maturely and responsibly in cooperation to provide answers, not excuses, to the long-term, intractable problems which our nation faces.

As we approach the 3 July meeting of COAG, again this program of reform faces the nation and we will be embracing it once again across the policy agenda. We will be dealing with early childhood education but also with the future of the skills agenda and the deregulation agenda. Those opposite prefer instead the politics of smear and fear. I recall those opposite saying that they were united by one thing—hatred, hatred of the Labor Party. What unites this side of politics is a positive vision for the nation’s future. We are committed to it and we will implement it. Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

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