Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins—my favourite ever member for Higgins, I must say—for her question. Indeed, yesterday the National Cabinet advanced reforms in health but also following on from the work that we've done with the National Skills Agreement. We had the most significant National Cabinet meeting on domestic policy that we've seen for a very, very long time.

There was a significant deal on health reform: locking in health and hospital funding so the Commonwealth contribution rises to 45 per cent by 2035—locking in a 12-year agreement on health and hospitals is a significant achievement—whilst delivering also an immediate $1.2 billion injection in strengthening Medicare, with more urgent care clinics and action to keep older people out of hospital and to get those who should be in hospital out of hospital earlier. We are providing them with the pathway in order to do so. We are making sure we deal with health workforce issues as well.

Secondly, of course, we had the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIS has delivered life-changing support for Australians, and we want it to be strong and sustainable into the future. National Cabinet agreed to work together to progress the legislative changes and to improve the experience of participants and restore the original intent of the scheme. We'll jointly design and fund foundational supports to be delivered through existing service settings such as schools and childcare centres, and we'll work in a constructive way to make sure that people with disabilities get the care that they need. We also agreed to extend the GST no-worse-off guarantee in its current form for three years, from 2027-28.

What this combination does is to provide states and territories with the certainty to be able to provide the services that people rely upon, making sure that we're delivering in a way that's constructive. This is the federation working as it should: in a constructive, cooperative manner. I do want to thank the premiers and chief ministers for the work that they have done and for the agreements reached. This is an outstanding outcome from yesterday's meeting, and I look forward to seeing the results in issues—

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