Doorstop Interview, Sydney

24 December 2010   

Subjects: Labor’s hospital reforms, Christmas Island tragedy, navy drug syndicate. 

E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………

TONY ABBOTT:

Well look, first of all I’m sorry to drag people in here on Christmas Eve. Like the rest of you, I probably had the intention of getting on with last minute Christmas shopping but it is important that I bell the cat here because what the Government has done today is truly outrageous.

There is almost nothing which is more important to people than health and hospitals. This is a Government which has been long promising serious health and hospital reform. Today they have announced that an important, indeed a vital element of health and hospital reform is not going ahead in the way they promised. It really is an outrageous thing to do, to break a promise like this and hope that no one will notice because it is on the eve of Christmas and it’s typical of the sneaky nature of the modern Labor Party that they should be taking out the garbage before Christmas on this as on so many other issues.

So what we have had today is an admission from the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, that there will be about 40 local hospitals networks instead of the 150 that were envisaged when Kevin Rudd last April promised a hospital system that would be nationally funded but locally run. This is a blatant broken promise. As I said, it is another attempt by a sneaky political party to take out the garbage before Christmas and it means that health reform is dead, just as everything else that this Government has attempted to do is turning out not to happen. I want to make it very clear that the Coalition supports a public hospital system which is locally run and funded on an activity basis and if the Government had been serious about these reforms they would have been supported by the Coalition. Instead what we’ve got is a Government which yet again has broken a promise and squibbed serious reform.

QUESTION:

Might this not make those local hospital networks more efficient, larger economies of scale, that sort of thing?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, Kevin Rudd was right when he said that we had to break down the giant bureaucracies that were suffocating our public hospital system and that were making it so difficult for doctors, nurses and patients. So, having accurately diagnosed the problem and having promised to deliver a better system, what we now see is a Government which is just going back to the bad old ways. I mean there will be something like 20 local hospitals networks in New South Wales. It’s just not good enough, it’s basically the same system that we’ve already got.

QUESTION:

So is this just an attempt to save a bit of money and not go ahead with the full reform?

TONY ABBOTT:

It’s a surrender by the Government on the whole endeavor of hospital reform. It’s a sign that this Government has decided that hospital reform is just too hard. They have run up the surrender flag on hospital reform just like they have run up the surrender flag on just about everything else they’ve taken up.

QUESTION:

The head of the navy has said today that the incident on Christmas Island has cut deeply into the minds of those serving on the HMAS Pirie, do you think that the Government needs to take responsibility for this given that you see their asylum seeker policy is failed?

TONY ABBOTT:

I want to make two points. The first point is that our naval personnel along with all members of the armed forces do a fine job under difficult and often dangerous circumstances and the last thing that you will hear from me is any readiness to engage in unfounded criticism of our military personnel. Second point I want to make is that the Government has to change its policy. As long as the boats keep coming there will be the risk of tragedy at sea and the Government should urgently change policy, it should change policy now. We know what the right policy is, it’s the policy that worked under the former Government and which this Government has changed to its cost and more importantly to the tragic cost of so many people who have put their lives at risk at sea.

QUESTION:

How concerned are you though that these reports now that the skipper may of jump ship and picked up by a second ship and if that’s the case, it also wasn’t picked up?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, no doubt there will be all sorts of investigations into this tragedy. There is an established process to investigate tragedies like this and I’m sure that that process should and will go ahead.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, are you concerned about allegations within the navy of a drug ring operating?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, again there are well established processes for investigating any wrong doing and I would be confident that they will swing into action.

QUESTION:

There is also this story at the moment that someone has been calling the families of the serving personnel according to be from the Defence Force telling their loved ones has died?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, an absolutely callous thing to do and a really low thing to do and I am sure that if it’s happening it’s going to be tracked down and appropriate action will be taken.

QUESTION:

Just back on the asylum seeker issue, we’ve seen an increase in number of boat people arriving this year, do you think we’ll see another increase in 2011?

TONY ABBOTT:

I think we can be confident that unless policy changes, the boats will keep coming and the tragedies will keep happening. That’s why it is so important to get a change of policy.

QUESTION:

And do you have a message for the crew of HMAS Pirie?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, my message for all military personnel at this time is that we respect what you’re doing. You do a difficult and dangerous job but you do it for our country and you have our respect and gratitude.

QUESTION:

Mr Abbott, now that Denmark has reneged on a deal to import waste from Sydney is the Government right to be looking off shore or should they be looking to treat waste like that in Australia instead?

TONY ABBOTT:

Which sort of waste are we talking about?

QUESTION:

Toxic waste, B.O.P, stored in Sydney for a number of years now, when the Government struck a deal with Denmark to import it over there to be treated, they have now reneged on that for domestic political reasons…

TONY ABBOTT:

The Danish Government?

QUESTION:

Yes.

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, this is not a subject that I am familiar with and so I would prefer not to comment.

[ends]