Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this discussion about ending the blame game. Let me commence by quoting a few words of the current Prime Minister as he addressed the first COAG conference this year after the election of the Rudd Labor government. He said:

The new Australian Government was elected at the end of last year. We were elected on a platform of ending the blame game between Canberra and the States and Territories. And in the six or seven months since then, in the three meetings of the Council of Australian Governments that have been held since then, we have sought through practical actions to give effect to that.

What did Mr Rudd and the rest of the Australian government inherit from 11 years of Howard government administration? In terms of constitutional arrangements and in terms of relationships between federal, state and local government, we inherited a system that can only be described as approaching dysfunctional. All we had year in, year out was blame, avoidance of responsibility and limitation of resource allocation. What were the Australian people crying out for? They were crying out for a responsible set of governments to sit down and agree on responsibilities and negotiate outcomes and go back to their respective states and allocate those responsibilities and carry out their agreed functions. They wanted their federal government and their state governments to give practical effect to the division of powers expressed in our Constitution—that is, most powers are given to the states, particular powers are given to the Commonwealth and the remainder are left to the states to allocate.

So what were they seeking? They were seeking the same thing as they sought in the 1890s: a functioning, rational, efficient system of government at a federal and state level. What has been the solution of the Rudd Labor government to give effect to that cry from the Australian people, expressed so well last November? We have brought down a policy process of cooperative federalism. The COAG processes, the regular meetings between Commonwealth and state governments, give effect to that new radical approach of cooperative federalism. It is about an exchange of views, the delineation of responsibilities, accountability and responsibility in the allocation and administration of public moneys all under the umbrella of fiscal responsibility.

What is the summary to date of those processes of the Rudd Labor government through the COAG process? COAG processes are up and running well. Up to a dozen areas of dysfunctionality have been identified by the current government and COAG committees have been established. They are chaired by cabinet ministers, and it is their responsibility to ensure that the intent of the Australian people—expressed, as I said, so well last November—to give effect to reasonable and practical change is achieved. That is what is going on now through the COAG processes under the umbrella of cooperative federalism, and it is chaired and led by responsible cabinet ministers who report back to cabinet to give effect to that much needed change.

What is the major initiative in all of the areas that have been identified as being the repository of dysfunctionality? Housing, welfare, education, public hospitals—long-term planning and strategy has been identified as the key to give effect to practical and realistic change in those areas. Large, significant amounts of Commonwealth funds have been allocated to that process.

Part and parcel of that process is not shovelling a bunch of money over to the states, as has been the practice for the past 12 years. Attached to the allocation of Commonwealth funds in a range of key areas has been an agreement with signed documents—indeed, signed up to by the respective state governments—that go under the headings of state accountability, state responsibility, state transparency and state adherence to agreed goals that will become public. All state and territory governments around this country have agreed to it. They are all attending the meetings. They are putting together packages of agreed outcomes, the dialogue has come to a conclusion and the plans for implementation, the plans for change and the plans for a new vision of cooperative federalism are well in place, being implemented and well advanced.

What is the key feature of that dialogue, of change to date and of new practices? The key feature is simply this: along with identification of problem areas that are capable of being rectified by the Commonwealth goes the allocation of funds to do that. What is the responsibility of the states? Firstly, it is to implement agreed change. But more importantly and more critically, for the first time since Federation in 1901 all of the states in the key areas of health, public hospitals, education, welfare, planning, resources and infrastructure have agreed or are in the process of agreeing to a set of agreed outcomes, benchmarked to particular tasks that are going to be made public.

So it is no chimera that is out there. It is no mirage. The states have signed up, led by the Commonwealth via particular cabinet ministers in particular areas of responsibility, and there is going to be major change, which is going to be public and will be tested by outcomes and results because there is a set of agreed benchmarks in each particular area. That is a mighty change. It is significant. It is going to revitalise our federation. It is going to be a wonderful development over the next 20 years to have spending, accountability and responsibility in the allocation of public funds.

Let’s look now at some four or five particular policy areas as to what is the change—what’s the walk, not just the talk—in the past six months of the current Rudd Labor government. Firstly, in the area of health we are investing in immediate results while building brick by brick the long-term sustenance and the long-term foundations of our own health system. We have made an immediate injection of over $1 billion to relieve some of the pressure on particular public hospitals in particular states.

The government, having allocated that $1 billion to the states to redress immediate problems, has also established something that is about the long term, something that is about the future, something that is about sustainability in this area. I refer of course to our $10 billion Health and Hospitals Fund. What an absolutely wonderful development that one government and cooperative states can go ahead for the next 10 years knowing that there are billions and billions of dollars allocated to improving and maintaining that improvement in our public hospitals!

A further $780 million has been invested in ending the blame game in dental health, something that the first Howard government in 1996 and 1997 decided to get out of. One of their first key efforts was to get out of public dental health. Twelve years later the Rudd Labor government is addressing that issue, allocating the funding and making sure those most in need in our community, generally pensioners and aged Australians, have access to a well-funded public dental health system. Furthermore, an additional $275 million—think about it: $275 million—is going to be invested in 31 GP superclinics right across this continent.

Let’s leave health, with the practical changes that have been implemented in the last eight or nine months, and turn now to another expression of cooperative federalism which ends the blame game—that is, housing. The Housing Affordability Fund provides up to $512 million over five years to address two significant supply side barriers to developing new housing. What are those two barriers? Firstly, the holding costs associated with planning and approval delays such as interest, land tax and council rates, all of which at the inception of purchase of housing fall upon consumers, who bear the front cost.

What is the second arm of change there? It is the cost of developing new infrastructure such as water, sewerage and transport. There is $512 million in the Housing Affordability Fund, and it will target specifically the lack of infrastructure, which acts as a barrier to the release or development of land. If you have not got land released and if you have not got proper planning processes in existence, you cannot have new houses and people go without.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme will see $623 million over the next four years to stimulate the construction of affordable rental dwellings. So we are helping public housing, we are helping infrastructure provision, we are reducing the costs that consumers have to bear up-front; and, for those who do not want to or choose not to purchase their own home, we have the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which will see over $600 million over the next four years to stimulate the construction of affordable rental dwellings. That is a wonderful change and a wonderful set of practical outcomes, which are a direct result of the election of the Rudd Labor government and the new way of doing things—cooperative federalism.

What are we doing in this area? We are going to increase the supply of land by releasing surplus Commonwealth land for the purposes of building new houses and new communities. So, as our states grow, as our population grows and as our youngsters marry and raise their own families, we will have the ability to provide them with housing, modern infrastructure and all the needs that young families in new communities have. Again, that is a direct response to the shortcomings of the previous Howard government and a direct result of new cooperative federalism as understood and administered by the new COAG process.

Finally, it is not just the demand side that is important. We are going to assist young Australians to start putting aside moneys from their disposable income now so that in four, five or seven years time when they choose to settle down and raise their own family they will have a significant deposit. They will then be able to go to a seller and say: ‘I’ve got the 30 grand or the 40 grand. That’s my deposit. I can afford the repayments and I want to buy that particular house.’ How are we going to do that? We are going to do that through the First Home Savers Account.

Public housing, infrastructure, renting, affordability, choice for youngsters, new housing lots in new communities—all of those issues have been addressed as part of the COAG process under the umbrella of cooperative federalism. What is that about? That is about ending the blame game.

Let us leave housing and health and turn to another critical part of policy for government, and that is education. Let us look at what is going on in the area of education. It is about ending the blame game. The Rudd government is going to work with all of the states and territories to improve the quality of education in three key areas. Today in caucus, Mr Rudd outlined the plans. Earlier this week, the Deputy Prime Minister, in a major speech, attacked the deficiencies that exist in our education system and outlined a set of proposals whereby parents, principals, teachers, boys and girls can go forward on the basis of full knowledge and full information. We will be able to provide the quality education that we all want for our children.

Firstly, what are we going to do in the area of education under the COAG process as part of the new cooperative federalism? We are going to improve the quality of teaching by recognising and rewarding top teachers and recruiting the highest performing graduates to teaching. No longer will a significant number choose to go off into architecture, law or medicine. The status of their profession is going to be upgraded and in due time lots of graduating university students are going to say: ‘That’s a profession that has a worthwhile end. That’s a profession that is respected in the Australian community. That’s a profession that I want to enter into. I’m going to devote my life to improving the outcomes for youngsters in the education system.’ We are part and parcel of leading the change here so that we have a quality education system going forward over the next 20 years for our youngsters.

What is the second thing that we are going to be doing in the area of education? We are going to be measuring school performance to make it easier for parents to understand their child’s and their school’s performance. That is a very radical change. It is a critical development. How worth while this is and how much merit is attached to it cannot be overstated. The things that parents want to know about their children’s progress are how they are going at school, how they compare to little Johnny next door, how they can do better, how they can do more work from home and how they can get a better result. (Time expired)