Federal politics live: Federal health funding boost ‘will go a long way’, NSW premier says

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has bowed to mounting pressure from the states and promised $25 billion for public hospitals in a bid to end a months-long stand-off.

For months the Albanese government has been locked in strained and protracted negotiations over the next five-year public hospital funding agreement, with the ABC revealing the prime minister had written to the premiers and chief ministers in September, telling them to rein in hospital spending growth if they wanted the implementation of a funding commitment made over two years ago.

But there had been a sense of urgency among governments to get the deal over the line ahead of Friday’s meeting, with the South Australian government in caretaker mode from February 21 before the state election.

You can read the full story from national health reporter Stephanie Dalzell below.

We’re still waiting on the final communique from the meeting to hit our inboxes.

But let’s run through some dot points of what we learnt from the press conference.

The federal government has agreed to increase hospital funding to the state and territories by $25 billion. It brings the total funding over five years to $219.6 billion. National cabinet also discussed how to make the NDIS more sustainable. The PM said there was a desire to curb growth to 6 per cent or less. This is down from the current growth rate of 10 per cent. It’s unclear at this stage if this is a hard target national cabinet agreed to. A short delay in the start of Thriving Kids rollout has been agreed to. The scheme is for children with “mild-to-moderate” developmental delays and autism. The program will now have to be implemented by January 2028.

And the final question of the press conference goes to NSW Premier Chris Minns on what the new funding deal means for wage negotiations with doctors and nurses.

He says there’s always going to be pressure on the wages bill.

“It’s the biggest proportion of state spending on any area of government spending,” he says.

And then the PM and the premiers get up from the table and call time on the press conference.

It was a short and sweet presser from the group today.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it’s up to the states and territories to decide whether they’d like to join the Commonwealth’s gun buyback scheme.

The federal government passed laws earlier this month establishing a gun buyback scheme in the wake of the Bondi attack.

“Our position is very clear. We support the action that we put forward and legislated for in the parliament a week ago,” Albanese says.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, who is opposed to the gun buyback scheme, has deflected questions about whether his state will sign up.

Instead, he says today’s agreement shows the states, territories and Commonwealth can work together.

“I hope you have seen today we can work on issues where we have commonality,” Crisafulli says.

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro says while her government welcomes the gun buyback scheme, taxpayers in her jurisdiction won’t foot the bill.

“I’ve been honest and upfront about that from day one. We respect the decisions other states have around gun reform,” Finocchiaro says.

The federal government agreed to a request from the states to delay the start date of a new Thriving Kids program for children with “mild-to-moderate” developmental delays and autism.

It’s been pitched as a way to get this cohort of children off the NDIS. 

Anthony Albanese says the program will start this year but the full rollout will be completed by January 1, 2028.

He says the group agreed they had to get it right.

The PM was also asked about his government’s spending. He says his government has found savings in the budget where previous Coalition governments did not.

Anthony Albanese has defended Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia in February.

The prime minister says the president is visiting Australia to engage with members of the Jewish community mourning the loss of 15 lives.

He says people have a right to express their views in a democratic society.

“I understand people are concerned about what’s happening around the world and in the Middle East, but this happened in Sydney and I think there should be an opportunity for that community to grieve, and I hope that people are respectful of that when it comes to protest designation,” Albanese says.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has chipped in and says he agrees with the prime minister’s sentiment.

Minns says the Jewish community should be given an opportunity to grieve.

Asked about a court challenge to NSW protest restrictions, Minns says his priority is to keep the community safe.

“Protests haven’t been banned, but the idea that you can completely take over the street and dissect one of the busiest cities in the country because you want to have [one] every week, I think there’s got to be reasonable limits on that,” Minns says.

The prime minister has opened up the floor to questions, and the first one gets lobbed to NSW Premier Chris Minns.

He is asked if this deal will help the state deal with the shortage in spots at aged care and disability facilities.

“It will go a long way to solving those problems,” he replies.

But Minns says those challenges have been in the system for a while and an injection of funding won’t be a quick fix.

He says there is a recognition of the pressures in today’s agreement but it’s a “combined effort” of the states and federal government to deal with rising costs.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has welcomed the agreement and the Commonwealth’s commitment to invest in urgent care clinics.

He says every single Australian deserves quality health care in the primary healthcare system.

“Today is welcome. It’s one that does have significant uplift in funding and one that we can support our respective systems further going forward,” Rockliff says.

Anthony Albanese says the hospital funding deal is about providing better health care and strengthening Medicare.

“[It’s] consistent with my government’s commitment to strengthen Medicare as a focal point for the Australian health system,
but also as a great source national pride,” he says.

The PM is also thanking the officials who helped put the deal together.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has thanked state and territory leaders for helping to land the agreement with the Commonwealth.

He says the focus of national cabinet was to provide quality care to patients.

“The success of our Commonwealth has always been about finding common ground, and I want to thank the premiers and chief ministers for the work that we’ve done together over a long period of time, making sure that our focus is not on ourselves or on politics, but on patients,” Albanese says.

Anthony Albanese has just stepped up (or sat down, since they’re sitting around the cabinet table).

He confirms a deal has been struck with the states for a hospital funding deal.

The PM says the federal government has agreed to provide an additional $25 billion to the states and territories over the next five years in hospital funding.

It brings the total funding to $219.6 billion.

“This is three times more additional funding for hospitals than was agreed to under the last five years ago agreement under the Morrison government,” he says.

The PM turns focus to the NDIS. He says national cabinet agreed to attempts to make the scheme more sustainable, wanting the future in growth to be about “6 per cent or less”.

It’s unclear if this is a hard target they’re adopting to curb the scheme’s growth.

But it wouldn’t be a pollie press conference if we weren’t left waiting for a little bit!

Don’t worry, I have my beady little eyes on the video feeds and will let you know as soon as Anthony Albanese steps up.

A little more on Sussan Ley’s announcement on the appointment of her acting shadow ministry.

The changes were triggered by the National Party’s decision to split from the Coalition over Labor’s hate laws.

It’s important to note that the appointment of acting shadow ministers acts as an interim until Ley appoints a permanent shadow cabinet.

The opposition leader says the National Party’s decision to leave the Coalition was “regrettable and unnecessary” and that the door remains open to the country party.

“On Tuesday evening, I wrote to David Littleproud proposing that we meet, without any preconditions and as a priority, ahead of parliament’s return,” Ley says.

“I understand and respect his decision to await his party’s consideration of a forthcoming spill motion. Following Monday’s parliamentary meeting of the Nationals, I will attempt to meet with whoever is elected as their leader.”

Just before the prime minister’s press conference, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has announced her acting shadow ministry.

Ley has flagged that the acting arrangements will cease before the second February sitting week starts.

In a statement, Ley says she will appoint a further six parliamentarians to serve in the shadow cabinet and two in the outer ministry before the second sitting week of the month.

“There is enormous talent in the parliamentary Liberal Party and my party room is more than capable of permanently fulfilling each and every one of those roles,” Ley says.

Here are the changes:

Ted O’Brien will take on assistant treasurer and financial servicesMichaelia Cash will take on trade, investment and tourismAnne Ruston will take on agriculture, fisheries and forestryDan Tehan will take on resources and Northern Australia James McGrath will take on infrastructure, transport, regional development, local government and territoriesAngus Taylor will absorb veterans’ affairsAngie Bell will absorb water and emergency management

Hi possums! I’m Courtney Gould and I’ll be joining blog captain Josh Boscaini for the rest of the day.

We’ve just received word that the prime minister will be speaking shortly. He’ll be standing up alongside the state premiers following a national cabinet meeting.

They were expected to discuss the federal government’s latest offer on hospital funding. Do I smell a deal?

We’ll be covering it all here for you live. Stay tuned.

The Liberal manoeuvrings for an assault on Sussan Ley’s leadership don’t lack transparency.

As members of the Liberal Party gathered in Melbourne on Thursday to attend the memorial service for former colleague Katie Allen, leadership aspirants Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor met to discuss their rival ambition.

Both the meeting and why it was needed were well publicised. Hastie and Taylor each want to run against Ley. But the two right-wingers can’t afford to split the conservative vote on which their tilts would rely.

Read the full analysis from Michelle Grattan in the link below.

There’s a lot of chatter about hospital funding today. Namely, who should fork out for what, and when.

While the states hold responsibility for running our hospitals, both the states and the federal government pay for it.

Today’s fight is between the federal government, who says the states need to rein in growth on hospital spending, and the states, who say they need more help from the federal government to pay their hospital bills.

This debate goes back to an agreement made in 2023, when the federal government promised to increase its share of hospital funding in exchange for the states and territories taking on responsibility for some disability services to take the pressure off the NDIS.

And everyone was happy! Kind of. Not really. A big sticking point has been the amount of growth the federal government is willing to support in hospital spending, which is currently capped at 6.5 per cent a year (after that, the states have to cover any amount entirely by themselves).

The cost to run hospitals is growing quickly due to an aging population, more pressure on emergency departments and recent inflation. The federal government wants the states and territories to help shoulder a higher share of that cost.

But state health ministers are warning they can’t pay more and argue it isn’t fair to ask them to, because so many things that are putting pressure on the system are actually the responsibility of the federal government.

One example is aged care, which is funded and run by the Commonwealth. The states and territories say their hospital bills are higher because people who should be in aged care but can’t find an available spot are languishing in public hospital beds.

And the clock is ticking, because the South Australian government goes into caretaker mode on February 21 ahead of the state election, which means they won’t be able to sign off on any new offer.

And that would be bad. For a variety of reasons, hospitals find it really hard to operate without a forward budget.

The Australian National Imams Council, Jewish Council of Australia, and Hind Rajab Foundation have lodged a legal complaint against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia next month.

The complaint, submitted to the attorney-general, home affairs minister and Australian Federal Police, calls for him to be refused entry to Australia.

In a statement, the organisations also called for a criminal investigation into Mr Herzog under Australian law.

“The complaint … raises serious concerns that President Herzog’s public statements and conduct may amount to incitement to genocide, complicity in war crimes, and unlawful hate speech under Australian and international law,” the statement read.

Mr Herzog is scheduled to visit Australia next month on invite of the prime minister and governor-general following the Bondi terror attack.

The councils say the action they have taken is not directed at the Jewish community but is motivated by a concern for social cohesion in Australia.

“Permitting the visit of a highly controversial foreign head of state accused of serious international crimes risks inflaming social tensions, undermining Australia’s hate-speech protections, and placing Australian communities at risk.”

Announced last August, surprising the states and disability sector, Thriving Kids has been pitched as an NDIS alternative for children with “mild-to-moderate” developmental delays and autism.

NDIS Minister Mark Butler said at the time the program would be jointly run and funded by the Commonwealth and states, and hoped the first phase of the rollout could start on July 1 this year.

The finer details are yet to be designed, or at least made public, but the idea is that Thriving Kids would “leverage” existing state systems, and be run in places such as health and early childhood centres.

While the states have agreed in-principle to jointly fund Thriving Kids, a formal deal remains unsigned.

The money needed to kickstart the next phase of the design of Thriving Kids is tied up in the public hospital deal — a separate deal Butler is trying to broker with the states today.

Once this is signed, we can expect to see a bit more movement.

Thriving Kids is seen as a central pillar of the government’s plan to rein in the growth of the NDIS, which now supports more than 700,000 participants and costs $50 billion a year.

With nowhere else to go to get support, about 11 per cent of all kids aged five to seven were on the NDIS at the end of June last year. About 40 per cent of participants of all ages had a primary diagnosis of autism, and 11 per cent had a developmental delay.

Maria Kovacic says she thought a recent column written by a senior male journalist about the marriage eligibility of Sussan Ley was “disgraceful”.

The article, written in online publication The Nightly by Aaron Patrick, was titled Why I Wouldn’t Marry Sussan Ley.

The Liberal senator says she thinks it was highly inappropriate and doesn’t reflect “credible political discourse”.

“We have moved away from a discourse around policy analysis and the judgement of ideas, rather, a shift to a judgement of human beings and individuals and basing an assessment on someone’s marriage eligibility or the way they might drive a vehicle,” Kovacic says.

“I think it reflects more on the quality and credibility of the journalism than that of the subject.”