Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 40:16 to 44:26
Discussion on the National Health Reform Agreement, including $25 billion in additional hospital funding, state-by-state breakdowns, and NDIS growth targets.
Topics: Health, Government spending, Social services
Speakers: Mr Blair Comley, Senator The Hon Carol Brown, Mr Ross Hawkins, Ms Sonja Stewart, Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I have some questions around this year's budget, which includes funding for public hospitals and disability. Can you outline what this agreement means for the funding of public hospitals across Australia?
So I'll ask Ms. Street to come to the table. But broadly speaking, if I give the high-level answer, it provided an additional $25 billion above the baseline to states and territories over the next five years, allowing growth and expenditure from the Commonwealth to rise at up to 8% per year, providing resources for the public hospital system to meet the needs of citizens.
So sorry, you said 25 billion. And how over how long?
So I maybe I'll hand to Mr. Eat. That's the additional amount. The actual total funding is well over 200 billion dollars. So Ms. Street?
Deputy Secretary for System Strategy Grip. So isn't it it's 220 billion over the five years? Starting from this financial year is the is the funding under the National Health National Health Reform Agreement.
Okay. My question was really that extra funding from the 25 billion. What does that mean for the funding of public hospitals across Australia?
So I'll pass on to um Mr. Hawkins in terms of the breakdown. But in terms of the additional funding, it is additional funding into the hospital system, but into all the other reforms that are under the National Health Reform Agreement. But if we we can provide the the split by state and territory, the indicative, it is activity-based funding, so it will be I would like that if you could provide that information.
So good morning, Senator Ross Hawkins, First Secretary Portfolio Strategy Division. As Mr said, there's kind of two frames the numbers. There's kind of the additional funding that's provided, which is the 24.4, and then you've got that as an addition to what was kind of historically provided. So the totality of that is the 220. In terms of the 24.4 billion, we can give you a kind of indicative breakdown of what that looks like per state and territory. So New South Wales was additional 6.5 billion. Victoria was additional 5.8 billion. Queensland was 5.7 billion, Western Australia, 2.4 billion, South Australia, 2 billion, Tasmania, 625 million, ACT 557 million, and NT 741 million. So that's the total of the 24.4 billion additional and where that went across the jurisdictions.
Well, thank you for that information. So how does the agreement? I'm having a look at the media release. How does the agreement help secure the future of the NDIS?
So the key part of the agreement is that all First Ministers agreed that they would be targeting a five to six per cent growth rate of the scheme in terms of annual funding growth of the NDIS. The NDIS in recent years had been growing it up to 20% per year. It is now a program of around $50 billion a year, so that was a very significant component. There was also an agreement to progress further work on foundational supports and to um embed the agreement of the Thriving Kids program. So those are programs outside the NDIS which also provide services and takes pressure off the NDIS, which was a key recommendation of the Paul and Bona Haiti review, which was done in 2023 as a way of ensuring that the NDIS was not the only way in which disability support was provided in Australia.
Thank you for that.