Jan England InTouchRadio.net Australia for InTouchRadio.net UK GLOBAL

States Get Extra $15 Billion COAG Deal

Healthcare ... States get an extra $1.1 billion to train doctors and nurses under the new COAG funding plan / pic supplied.

States agree to $15bn funding deal
More money for healthcare, education
Spending to create 133,000 jobs

STATES and territories have agreed to a funding program by the Commonwealth Government which gives them an extra $15 billion for health and education.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the plan would create 133,000 new jobs and boost the economy, while still letting the government maintain a 'modest' budget surplus.

Training for doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals will receive an extra $1.1 billion in funding under the new Council of Australian Governments agreement.

Efforts to improve the public hospital emergency departments will get $750 million in funding.

In addition to extra health spending, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the Commonwealth had agreed on a new $42.4 billion national education agreement.

"A core condition for this new partnership ... is in bringing about a new era of public transparency in the reporting of schools and their performance across the nation," said Mr Rudd.

There will also be a new national agreement on teach quality, with a $555 million partnership to train teachers and reward good ones. Another $1.1 billion will go to disadvantaged schools.

"This is a clear statement that this government intends to prosecute the education revolution based on a new era of transparency and schools reporting to their communities ... on their actual performance," Mr Rudd said.

"So that school principals become change agents for the future, particularly those schools that are in the most disadvantaged parts of Australia," he said.

However, the Australian Education Union said schools are not getting their fair share.

The announcement of $400 million annually for primary and secondary schools falls short of the $2.9 billion needed, said AEU Victorian president Mary Bluett said.

"We're disappointed with the amount of investment, particularly coming from a government that was elected on the platform of an education revolution.

"It falls well short of what we had hoped for.''

More money for primary and disadvantaged schools is welcome, but wasn't enough to pay for smaller class sizes or special programs for disadvantaged students, she said.

"We need about more than double what they're put aside if we're to tackle the educational outcomes for those students in disadvantaged areas," said Ms Bluett.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh welcomed the Commonwealth's decision to increase funding, and to give states an extra $870 million for school computers.

"It's an investment straight into the economy to keep the motor running,'' Ms Bligh said of the funding pact.

Mr Rudd said the Commonwealth would be able to fund the new deal and still maintain a "modest'' budget surplus.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) had this year streamlined the number of purpose payments from 96 to 5, said Mr Rudd.

``This is one of the largest reforms to the structure of commonwealth-state relations that we have had in the recent history of federation.''

"Which for the first time will be driven by a rigorous commitment to the measurement of the actual outcomes, outputs, results that we achieve through these agreements.

Victorian Premier John Brumby said he was pleased the additional health funding was tied to specific outcomes.

"In other words, more money in, more treatments going out ... more patients being treated.''

Mr Brumby said the Commonwealth had committed $400 million for social housing and homelessness, which will be matched by the states.

Michael Dixon Founder of InTouchRadio.net

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