There’s an odd kind of acquiescence to broken political promises. It’s considered almost narky to politely point out to politicians that they have in fact broken a promise that helped have them elected.
Following the big sell the Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Nicola Roxon are embarking on after the COAG health agreement, its worth remembering what we were actually promised in back in Kevin07 days.
Despite the celebrations that Gillard and Roxon are asking us to partake in, the ‘deal’ it represents is a failure of Rudd, Gillard and Roxon to implement what was supposed to be a revolutionary health agenda. It’s symptomatic of the kind of inertia Labor has encountered across its policy agenda and, consequently, its support base.
Go back to the 2007 election campaign and look at what Kevin Rudd said about “ending the blame game” on health.
“What I’m signalling very clearly is if we weren’t able to yield that sort of outcome co-operative with the states, then I believe the mood of the nation is that we need to ask the Australian people for a mandate to take Commonwealth responsibility for full funding for public hospitals.”
And this from Roxon in an opinion piece in August 2007, calling the promise “one of the most significant reforms of our health system since Federation”:
“We also announced that if - and only if - state and territory governments had not begun implementing an agreed national plan by mid-2009, a federal Labor government would seek public support to take financial control of Australia’s 750 public hospitals. A few days later we followed that up by announcing a $220 million investment in new primary care infrastructure called GP super clinics. These are significant commitments to get our health system back on track and equip it for the demands of the future.”
The parameters for a Commonwealth takeover were always loose, primarily because Rudd and Roxon had absolutely no intention of going near a Commonwealth takeover. There was also a promise for 31 GP super clinics in Labor’s first term.
Now fast forward to mid 2009 when absolutely nothing happens except a meeting to iron out the parameters on improvements to the system, and set a date for another COAG meeting in 2010. By May, there were three super clinics in operation and eight near completion.
Move to April 2010 when Kevin Rudd forced a “historic” breakthrough with the states on hospital funding.
Let’s put aside the fact that by this time the states had arguably not met Rudd’s criteria to avoid a Commonwealth takeover, and he could’ve called for a referendum (if even needed Constitutionally) in the 2010 election. Let’s just assume the deal that would see the states surrender 30 per cent of their GST revenue in return for a new Commonwealth dominated role (eventually 60 per cent) was a good one.
The real problem was that there was no deal in the first place. Rudd and Roxon were too busy getting high on the hyperbole of the agreement and assumed that WA Premier Barnett would surrender to pressure and jump aboard. He did not - and there was still no deal.
Let’s also remember during this time the Australian Health and Hospitals Reform Commission was formed. This was a team of crack health experts who were to form the blueprint of health policy for the Labor Government.
The HHRC worked for 18 months and compiled two reports, making 123 recommendations in the final report on the future of health in Australia. Both Rudd and Gillard’s plan adopted parts of recommendation that called for a unified funding model that allows procedures to be better costed. To be fair to Rudd, the HHRC’s recommendation on a Commonwealth primary care takeover (that’s pretty much anything outside a hospital) was also in last year’s plan with the states.
Largely however, especially in regard to recommendations on dental and mental health, the HHRC’s report was thrown on the pile with the Henry Review and Garnaut reports (I figure somewhere out there Ken Henry, Ross Garnaut and HHRC members are meeting in a suburban scout hall every second Tuesday for group therapy).
After Rudd was dumped there was no indication that the health plan would go with him. Throughout the campaign Gillard Labor continued to argue the benefits of Rudd’s reform. After scraping through the election Gillard still saw the reforms as central to her reform agenda, repeating her commitment to the Rudd’s health plan.
Roxon is blaming the failure of Rudd’s deal on Barnett and the subsequent election of Ted Baillieu in Victoria, with none too subtle hinting that it’s all the fault of those damn Liberal premiers. This is true, but it’s also one of the vicissitudes of politics, and going out and proclaiming you had a deal when you didn’t is something Roxon should’ve considered.
Roxon has been the only constant in the Labor Government’s health policy since 2007, and her role in its failures have gone relatively unexamined.
Roxon is smart, decent and one of the hardest working ministers - she’s also notoriously difficult to work for and with.
Her officious manner and quick temper meant that after the last election her office all but cleared out: fed up policy advisors and press secretaries made a break for it, despite Labor holding on to power. Nor are Roxon’s failings lost on the health stakeholders she’s supposed to be negotiating with.
Roxon was nowhere to be seen when Gillard announced she’d dump the Rudd deal and didn’t pop up till to Monday morning after the COAG deal, with the bulk of the big sell being left to Gillard.
But the failures of Labor’s health policy go beyond any faults of Roxon’s. In fact, they go beyond health. If you track the big promises and failed policy endeavours of Labor since the election of Kevin Rudd in 2007, health begins to look a little like the dead canary in the coalmine.
All of the Rudd/Gillard big policy failures seem to follow a similar pattern: from the ETS to tax reform to asylum seekers we’ve been promised big revolutionary change, followed by broken promises and backdowns, followed by a new Prime Minister who proceeded to reaffirm her support for, then promptly tear up the old plans. All of this becoming so far removed from the originals they hope we’d forgot they were still breaking promises.
So now what? We have the new Gillard deal on health that, much like the one struck under Rudd, is not actually a deal yet. Assuming a final deal is struck what are we actually left with? A watered down version of an already weaker version of what Rudd initially promised us. You’re not going to need another poll to understand the cynicism in the electorate.
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Greece makes the final and Ireland gets in on a golden ticket. How awkward and embarrassing. Love it. #sbseurovision
The weird thing about #eurovision is you've got this massive collection of dorks in a room and no one is wearing Spock ears #sbseurovision
Europe has the large hadron collider which is light years ahead of its time and #eurovision, where the eighties never die
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Eurovision can’t drown out the human rights abuses
Last year, thousands of Azerbaijanis spontaneously took to the streets of Baku shouting and chanting.…
Revenge. It doesn’t get a whole lot better than this
Last month, Katy McCaffrey boarded the Disney Wonder cruiseliner. At some point during the trip, a sneaky…
Friday dilemma: can school bullies grow out of it?
ClubsNSW is set to introduce a fresh new effort to combat schoolyard intimidation, insisting on a principal’s…
Nosebleed Section
choice ringside rantings
From: They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
Michael S says:
"A teacher at Geelong Grammar had criticised her for using words that were too long, which had left her confused and had made her doubt her ability to write essays. She became ''quite distressed'' when her English marks began to fall." I can sympathise. My scholastic mentors conveyed to me a causal relationship… [read more]From: Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone
Change Up! says:
I have no problem paying my taxes. As a single, childless person on a very decent income, I can afford it and not have my life severely altered. Plus I understand that my taxes paying for things like schools, childcare and infrastructure is ultimately a good thing. A better community is better for me… [read more]Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
Most commented