John Robertson says premier ‘rolled out Tony Abbott’s cuts’ leaving health spending $500m short
The New South Wales opposition leader has accused the Baird government of underspending in the key areas of health and education in its 2014-15 budget.
John Robertson said the premier had failed to stand up to Tony Abbott’s budget cuts and said the budget was a document of spin which fell $500m short on health spending.
“Today we discovered there will be half a billion dollars less in our hospitals,” he said.
“That means more pressure on everyone who works at our hospitals, because the money is not there because Mike Baird has rolled out Tony Abbott’s cuts.”
The treasurer, Andrew Constance, announced on Tuesday $1.3bn for building and redevelopment of health facilities including Westmead, Sutherland, St George and Gosford hospitals.
He also announced $220m to retain patient services previously funded by the Commonwealth and $24m for five new ambulance stations.
But the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the money will not be enough.
The NSW president, Saxon Smith, says the cuts to health in the federal budget have flowed through to the NSW budget.
“This has resulted in a lower than required level of growth funding for health,” he said.
“While the 5.2% increase is in line with past years, the NSW government has had to absorb funding for programs previously funded by the Commonwealth government.”
The AMA says health growth funding needs to increase by approximately 7% a year to maintain levels of services.
The secretary of Unions NSW, Mark Lennon, said the budget failed in the areas of jobs for the young, injured workers and pressure on public service jobs.
He believed 2,500 jobs were set to go from the public service.
“It will put further pressure on public sector workers to deliver services that the NSW government needs,” he said.
The NSW Greens said control of the budget had been passed to the business sector, which will reap $780m in benefits from the abolition of transfer and duty taxes.
Greens spokesman John Kaye said taxes on poker machines could give the budget an $800m boost to fund growth in education spending that the federal government had deserted.