Fed: We're acting where states have failed: Howard

AAP General News (Australia)
08-05-2007
Fed: We're acting where states have failed: Howard

By Prime Minister John Howard

The figures tell the story. A story of record revenues, increasing debt, and - in critical
areas - an inability to deliver on essential services.

In 2005-6 the total net debt of the states and territories was $10.6 billion.

By 2010-11, the level of net debt of all states and territories is expected to hit
a staggering $80.5 billion.

All this in a time of rising prosperity, and rising revenue for the states, both from
their own taxes and charges, and from the GST.

Every last cent of the GST is distributed to the states and territories. In the first
full year of the GST, in 2000-01, they received $24.3 billion. In 2007-08, they will get
almost $42 billion.

The GST was introduced by the federal government to provide a secure revenue base for
the states to fund essential services - to make sure that schools, hospitals, roads and
police were properly financed.

There are areas where the states are managing, but clearly there are areas where they are not.

And I make no apologies for stepping in to the breach where they are not.

I do not believe Australians are hung up about theories of governance, or arbitrary
lines on maps. They get hung up on results. And they get frustrated by mismanagement.

They want good services and good outcomes. And they want someone to deliver it.

There are obviously clear divisions of responsibility between federal and state governments.

The management of the national economy, the defence and foreign affairs of the nation
and immigration, are the province of federal government.

The delivery of basic services, law and order, water are traditionally local responsibilities.

But where gaps have appeared, we have stepped in to fill them.

In the last election campaign, I announced we would build technical colleges around Australia.

There are now 21 Australian technical colleges operating, from Gladstone to Gippsland
to the Spencer Gulf, and there are another seven in the pipeline.

We acted because we could see this was an area which the states had vacated.

Our intervention sparked a renewed interest in technical education by the states.

In January, I announced a $10 billion plan to rescue the Murray-Darling Basin, now
in a perilous state because of the long years of drought and improper management.

I sought the agreement of five state and territory leaders to transfer their powers
and enable the commonwealth government to oversight water management in the basin. I appealed
to them to set aside any parochial concerns and focus on the long term needs of the basin
and the people whose future depends on its good health.

All agreed it was the right way to go, except the Victorian government.

And because it is the right way to go, we will press ahead with our plan.

In June I announced we would assume responsibility in the Northern Territory for indigenous
affairs, after it became patently and painfully obvious the territory government was incapable
of fixing the horrific problems faced by some communities.

It was unequivocally the right thing to do.

In April 2006 we announced an additional $1.8 billion to help people with mental illness,
and called on the states to match it. A few weeks ago, I announced another $1.8 billion
package for people with disabilities, their families and carers, much of which fills gaps
in supported accommodation and respite care services that the states are supposed to provide
under longstanding commonwealth-state funding arrangements.

The reform of workplace laws has strengthened the economy, increased employment and
helped ensure Australia is well placed to take advantage of a minerals boom which Kevin
Rudd keeps predicting will end soon and which one of his advisers now predicts will endure
for a couple of decades.

My announcement last Wednesday of a $45m grant to keep the Mersey Hospital going in
Devonport provided a lifeline for the local community.

What we are proposing for the Mersey could be a model for ensuring the viability of
hospital facilities in other parts of regional Australia.

The opposition leader keeps promising an end to the blame game. It is actually a lame
game he plays, which dodges responsibility and accountability.

We will fulfil our responsibilities as a federal government, but we will not retreat
in areas where others are failing theirs.

AAP

KEYWORD: HOWARD COLUMN POLITICAL COLUMN

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