PREMIERS have nominated savage federal funding cuts for public hospitals and schools as the biggest single issue of their meeting with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
“THAT quite frankly makes the GST debate dwarfed to a pimple on the size of the pumpkin,” NSW Premier Mike Baird told reporters ahead of a Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra on Friday.
The federal government’s first budget a year ago ripped out $80 billion of unfunded Labor commitments to the states and territories for health and education. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said state leaders did not want the issue discussed in a bickering way. “We should try to find some consensus and common ground to acknowledge hospitals and schools can’t continue on what is fundamentally an unsustainable funding basis,” he told reporters. Mr Andrews said he was hoping for a proper reform conversation. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the funding cuts will cost her state $18 billion over 10 years. “It’s going to have a huge effect on my budget,” she told reporters. Ms Palaszczuk also wants the national disability insurance scheme discussed at the meeting, saying she was “extremely passionate” about the issue.