Coag
It used to be called the Premiers’ Conference, and it was all about money. The Premiers attended, determined to screw as much cash out of the federal government as possible. When the Commonwealth took over income tax in 1942, they had no other real source of income.
The meetings were essentially a theatre. The Premiers left their states with a farewell press conference, promising to extract a great deal out of Canberra. On the night before the meeting, the Commonwealth would slide its offer under the hotel door.
In the morning, another series of press conferences, with each Premier deriding the meagre amount offered. When the meeting broke up, each Premier held yet another press conference, praising his or her magnificent effort in extracting a reasonable offer from the feds. End of another annual money carve-up.
Continue reading "Money (That’s What The States Still Want)" »
The blame game monster is back and it has been munching steroids in its brief absence.
Tomorrow’s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting will be the first following both the NSW and Queensland elections and the subsequent realigment of the national political equation.
The long-standing fixture of state-federal animosity will be intensified by the dominance of Coalition premiers who will have a 4/2 majority.
Continue reading "The blame game monster returns. Now he’s ANGRY!" »
Latest 2 of 103 comments
View all comments-
Carl Palmer says:
I’d rather be associated with a group who looked after their own as opposed to being involved in a group who leaders stole from me and lied to me. They misused their member ie working family’s funds. They were so corrupt their senior comrades suspended them from their union. It… Read more »
-
BennC says:
Campbell Newman’s parents were both Ministers in Federal Coalition Governments and represented Tasmania - a small state with parliamentary representatives adept at extracting a great deal out of successive governments. Newman’s late father, Kevin represented the famously marginal seat of Bass and succeeded in delivering what is probably the only… Read more »
The COAG reform agenda, having stalled long ago under Labor’s chaotic governing style, is showing about the same signs of life as the US housing market, if the latest performance reports are anything to by.
The 2009-10 performance reports released in recent days did not make for pleasant reading. Almost two years after the deadline for Kevin Rudd’s promise to take over the hospital system if the states did not lift their game, we are still no closer to a solution.
Elective surgery waiting times rose nationally while “financial barriers” caused one million Australians to put off seeing a GP. No doubt these financial barriers will only worsen as the inflationary effects of Labor’s stimulus spending come home to roost through higher taxes and interest rate hikes.
Latest 2 of 47 comments
View all comments-
CapitalBoy says:
Persephone - Would I be mistaken if you were an English teacher of mine a few years back? Read more »
-
Perseus Remus says:
There’s only one thing wrong with your analysis Marise; it’s a fraud! Labor got COAG going again after years of threats and intimidation by the Howard government. Over 96 separate tied funding agreements were streamlined down to something like eight. Incentive-based payments saw elective surgery waiting lists come down in… Read more »
Kevin Rudd’s claim that the re-vamped COAG hospitals agreement constitutes ‘major national health reform’ is dubious at best.
In fact, the ‘in principle’ COAG agreement abandons most of the central reform features of the Rudd blueprint.
A crucial plank of the Rudd reforms was to give the Commonwealth a controlling share in hospital funding and thus majority funding responsibility for the entire health sector.
Continue reading "Is this real health reform or more of the same?" »
Latest 2 of 45 comments
View all comments-
susie says:
Reform was actually about money management not about patients at all and staff. Thanks heaps to all concerned Read more »
-
Jane says:
@Gregg. I don’t feel like that, I’m quite happy for their funerals to be paid out of tax payer money. How are ‘Australian lives being put at risk?’ exactly… Don’t make sweeping statements that have no fact. Read more »
The Federal Government has branded it “historic” and “a major achievement”, but big questions hang over Julia Gillard’s multi-billion dollar hospital reform deal.
Here are the answers to some of the most likely questions:
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The deal turns on two key things from the Commonwealth: money, and national control. More of one, less of the other.
Continue reading "Hospital reform: Your questions answered" »
Latest 2 of 59 comments
View all comments-
Tom says:
Thanks for pointing out the blarney stone, perse. Mind if I don’t line up to kiss it. That’s right, ... 2019, ... 2014, ... 2015, ... blaah ..blaah ... out tumbles the words. It gives your masters another 8 “historic” years to delay answering the question, “why has nothing happened”.… Read more »
-
Catching up says:
“Holly - for once this article is about the Government not the Opposition. “ Maybe if the Opposition waited until after the announcement before reacting negativity, the media concentration might just stay on the government. It is Mr. Abbot that makes himself the story by his outlandish behavior and allegations. … Read more »
The closest to a Cone of Silence in Parliament House is the cabinet room, where even the most senior ministers must surrender their mobile telephones before entering and iPads are neutered of their email facilities.
The fear of security officials is that the devices might be hacked and secret deliberations recorded by those not entitled to hear them.
No one outside the room can listen in, but that doesn’t stop a range of commentators—journalists, interest groups—passing judgement on what is going on inside .
Continue reading "Abbott impatient to declare health deal a disaster" »
Latest 2 of 237 comments
View all comments-
Ryan says:
@bobw: thanks, I guess I would just lump NSW Labor into being Labor, the worst of the worst. Read more »
-
Matt says:
How about we withdraw some of the political spin from your post, Democrat. Complaints about tax increases have nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the fact that, apart from the 32% really rusted on labor supporters, everybody acknowledges this Government has wasted a lot more… Read more »
If the ‘greatest moral and economic challenge of our generation’ can wait until 2013 at the earliest, along with the savings required to repair our tattered budget, what chance does the rest of Kevin Rudd’s overloaded COAG reform agenda have?
After two and half years of this government, Australians can now clearly see Mr Rudd’s modus operandi: if it’s A. hard, B. unpopular or C. all of the above; leave it for another day.
His decision to shelve his much-vaunted emissions trading scheme (ETS) and abandon his quest to personally save the world from global warming comes as no surprise as he consistently demonstrates to the Australian people that he prefers to take the easy road.
Continue reading "Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow" »
Latest 2 of 22 comments
View all comments-
Ture Sjolander says:
I did not! I was waiting until today. ...and tomorrow it may be too late. Read more »
-
Peter says:
@ All, the Greek thing exploded because of MASSIVE tax evation by the rich, and a reluctance from anybody to collect it (because they are too nice).. I got told off for trying to pay my bus fare in Athens because the driver had better things to do… Now you… Read more »
Ever heard the joke about the “historic national agreement”?
It was hard to miss the meeting of COAG this week, with the Prime Minister desperately offering imaginary buckets of money to bribe state Premiers into signing onto an “historic national agreement” on health reform.
Funny though, I’ve heard those words used before. And they now ring quite hollow. Does anyone remember the “historic national agreement” on the Murray Darling Basin? It was year one of the Rudd Government, the blame game was being ended, a new era of cooperative federalism was being hailed and Labor’s focus groups had yet to pick up voters getting weary of the Prime Minister’s initial grab-bag of clichéd phrases.
Continue reading "Historic meeting makes history on truly historic day" »
Latest 2 of 17 comments
View all comments-
Robert Smissen of God's Own Country, Rural SA says:
Will this “historic health reform” help “working families” ? ? ? Read more »
-
Shifter says:
Hmm, with all this sickness and injury it present a comple challenge. I think we need some historic health reform to cope with all this new pressure on working families. Read more »
One of the magnums of Centenary of Federation Shiraz sitting down in the Lodge cellar would be a suitable drop for the Prime Minister to uncork to mark the signing of his health agreement. Therese is stuck in London thanks to the volcano so Kevin Rudd can kick off his work shoes and celebrate this deal - and it’s a big one - in style. In fact he could kick off more than just his shoes and do his Hugh Grant impression in celebration like in this video:
He ought to enjoy the celebrations because when he wakes up he’ll remember the deal he has struck, which makes him responsible for the delivery of healthcare services in Australia.
So when the disgruntled son or daughter of an elderly patient decides to call talkback radio in their city because mum has been on a trolley for six hours in the Emergency department, they’ll be wondering what Kevin Rudd is going to do about it.
Continue reading "Pop the cork on a few, PM, but the work’s only starting" »
Latest 2 of 145 comments
View all comments-
college basketball gambling says:
wOrlmi Somewhere in the Internet I have already read almost the same selection of information, but anyway thanks!!... Read more »
-
TDJ says:
Everyone should be very worried. When a PM will not tell anyone where the money is coming from you can bet it is because nobody is going to like the answer. These dickheads do it all the time and it is about time people woke up and smelt the shit… Read more »
Kevin Rudd has spent so much time in hospital over the past month that you would be forgiven for thinking he has a terminal disease.
He doesn’t – although we’ll talk about his heart a bit further down.
Despite having held more than 20 press conferences in the nation’s hospitals in the past few weeks, chatting to patients, nodding sagely as he meets doctors and nurses, the Prime Minister does not appear to have succeeded in explaining the importance or even the intention of his health takeover to the voters.
Continue reading "Health reform could give Kevin serious chest pains" »
Latest 2 of 158 comments
View all comments-
acotrel says:
So the health legislation has to get past the senate? FAT CHANCE! The only state which hasn’t signed up is WA, which has a Liberal government. Tony Abbott proposes opposing the legislation because in it’s agreed form, it doesn’t represent what was originally proposed. Why is that? Because the state… Read more »
-
acotrel says:
Premiers with the exception of Colin Barnett will allways do what their party wants, it means nothing Talk about ‘one eyed’! Only one state has failed to sign up - it has a LIBERAL government! Tony Abbott promises to obstruct the legislation in the LIBERAL controlled senate! Are we supposed… Read more »
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
It's a Sydney thing, but 95.3FM... Why? It used to be all Bohemian Rhapsody and Walk this Way; now it's Father to Son and Country Road. Wah.
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project
I’d like to be able to say that sharing the world’s largest radio telescope with South Africa…
Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics
When North Queensland Liberal MP George Christensen got the idea of launching a new political organisation…
Please enter your password
Help! I’ve succumbed to a crippling modern illness that can strike at any moment. Symptoms include:…
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
Latest 2 of 45 comments
View all commentsAdd your comment