Closing a public hospital is still an option, with an increase to the GST off the table, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill says.
Mr Weatherill has floated his support for the increase of the GST to 15 per cent as one measure to cover a funding gap in health and education.
But the Premier said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s latest comments appeared to rule it out.
“It seems that the key argument that was being advanced by the conservative forces is that we needed to switch tax from direct and indirect forms,” he said.
“They seem to have lost confidence in that argument, so yes you’d have to say it’s looking pretty sick.”
The State Government is already closing the Daw Park Repatriation Hospital, as part of a wider reform of the health system.
Mr Weatherill said nationally, state governments were facing $80 billion in cuts to federal funding for health and education and if that gap was not closed, another hospital could go.
“That’s certainly the prospect if we can’t get a response to the funding gap. The choices will be increased state taxes, borrowings, user pays and the closure of services.”
Mr Weatherill was critical of the Prime Minister’s approach to the tax debate, saying he had left it to the states to raise revenue.
“I don’t think this has been the sort of mature debate we were promised when he became Prime Minister,” Mr Weatherill said.
“He said that we’d be getting away from the slogans, we’d be getting away from Tony Abbott and we’d be moving to some honest discussions with the Australian people where he would advocate for serious change. I don’t think we’ve seen that.”
Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said indicating a hospital may close was a dangerous threat.
He said South Australia did not have a revenue problem.
“When you take a look at at the forward estimates, the Government has a forecast surplus of $2.7 billion but is crying poor,” Mr Marshall said.
“In South Australia we have the highest expenditure per capita in the health arena nationally.”