Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett is backing away from his initial view that a health deal struck between the Commonwealth and the Labor states and territories could fall over without his support.
Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett is backing away from his initial view that a health deal struck between the Commonwealth and the Labor states and territories could fall over without his support.
Mr Barnett was the only leader on Tuesday not to agree to hand over about 30 per cent of his state's GST revenues which the Commonwealth will use to help finance its role as dominant funder of the nation's public hospitals.
A day after his state and territory colleagues signed up to the deal, Mr Barnett was flagging WA's possible support and that it was "unlikely" the deal would collapse.
"I think we will reach an agreement on the GST over the coming weeks," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
Mr Barnett denied he was being obstructionist.
"I don't want to be seen as a spoiler. I am not doing that.
"Nor am I seeking to be a home town hero in WA. I am just about preserving the GST for what it was intended to be."
Mr Barnett said he was determined to maintain the integrity of the GST as a form of revenue for WA to govern its own affairs.
"There is a very strong sense in WA that we get plundered fairly periodically by the Commonwealth government," he said.
"This would open the door for the Commonwealth to take more money for health or indeed start to take money for education.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rejected suggestions the deal would fail without WA, saying there were other inter-governmental agreements with other states and territories where WA was not a signatory.
"On this question, Colin's just wrong," he said of Mr Barnett's initial view.
"I am confident that we will find a way through."
Mr Rudd said yesterday while he reached agreement on landmark health reforms with Labor state and territory leaders, negotiations with Western Australia will continue.
The prime minister said the negotiations had been long and tough, but the agreement reached was a good result for working families.
"This is a good day for working families, it's a good day for senior Australians, for pensioners and for carers," Mr Rudd said.
"It's a good day for mums and dads and patients and a good day for doctors and nurses working hard in our health and hospitals system across the country."
Yesterday, Mr Barnett had been locked out of talks between Mr Rudd and other Labor leaders. Shortly after that meeting, Victorian Premier John Brumby said he would support the health and hospital reforms.
Both states and New South Wales, in the lead up to the Council of Australian Governments meeting, were staunch opponents to the federal government's reforms, with all three states opposing the GST claw back of the plan.
The Rudd government wants to retain 30 per cent of GST revenue from each state and territory in order to take 60 per cent control of the health systems in each state.
But Mr Barnett yesterday said he would not be signing on to the deal as it stands.
He said he supported many of the measures, including those around elective surgery and extra beds, but the sticking point remained the plans for a federal clawback of GST.
He also supported governance arrangements.
"But the third aspect of the Commonwealth essentially taking one third of the total GST pool is not acceptable to me and it is not acceptable to Western Australia."
Mr Barnett said there had been "very little discussion" on the structure of the reforms - both in responsibility and funding - which were WA's main concerns.
"I guess there had been agreement reached with the other states," he said.
"The prime minister from the outset knew my position, I'd explained that to him several weeks ago.
"So I guess that's a point where we were not going to agree on today."
Mr Barnett said WA was still prepared to sign the agreement, as long as the Commonwealth compromises on the GST clawback.
WA wants to hang on to its GST revenue, but is prepared to pay an equivalent amount of money into a special health fund.
"So in other words the outcome would be exactly the same, but we would not agree to the Commonwealth taking, in a pre-emptive way, one third of our GST," Mr Barnett said.
"If over the coming weeks the Commonwealth agrees that WA continues to receive its GST ... then we will be prepared to sign the agreement."
Mr Barnett suggested the deal Mr Rudd was touting wasn't the real McCoy if WA wasn't a part of it.
"I would think you need every state and territory to sign up to have a complete deal," he said.
Mr Rudd said he remained confident an agreement could be reached with WA, but did not rule out appropriating the GST revenue and putting it into the pool of funds.
"We're pretty confident we can work something through with our friends in the west," he said.
"It might take a bit of time, a bit of an arm wrestle ... we'll see how we go."
"In terms of Commonwealth powers, we prefer to do these things on a co-operative basis and that remains my preference."
Mr Rudd withdrew his threat to take the issue to a referendum, despite WA still refusing to sign up to the plan.
And Mr Rudd did not believe his reforms, contingent on changing the Commonwealth's GST agreement with the states, would fail because he was yet to get WA on board.
"We're confident, based on our advice, that there is no particular difficulty on that score," he said.
"But we'll work our way through the detail, as I said, I'm confident we'll find some landing place with our friends in the west."
As the dominant funder of Australia's public hospitals, Mr Rudd said he would take responsibility for sub-standard healthcare experiences.
"The buck stops with me," he said.
"On the delivery of the healthcare system, that will lie in the hands very much of the local hospital networks."
He said he was "dead determined" to see Western Australians get the benefits of the deal.
"As of this morning we had about 33 per cent of the country on board for this agreement, as of now we've got 90 per cent of the country on board for this agreement," he said.
"That's not a bad agreement."
Mr Rudd said he was confident WA would agree by July 1.
Mr Barnett was also hopeful, adding that West Australians shouldn't worry about receiving inferior health care.
"I don't believe in any scenario you would see the Commonwealth discriminate against sick people in WA," he said, adding the state would continue to fund 63 per cent of its hospitals.
