If you’re politician running a distraction, it’s not a bad idea to make sure the distraction doesn’t end up biting you. Now John Brumby’s high-profile opposition to the federal government’s health and hospitals has started to focus attention on his own hospital system, which until recently was regarded among most non-expert commentators as the nation’s best or close to it.
That was until the Daily Telegraph’s Sue Dunlevy stood up yesterday at the Press Club after Brumby’s address and produced a strong candidate for best press question of the year.
Mr Brumby, Sue Dunlevy from the Daily Telegraph. You’re saying today — the title of your address is “putting patients first”. But it’s not something that you’re doing in your own hospital system. Victoria’s hospitals see fewer emergency and elective surgery patients within the recommended time than hospitals in New South Wales. You spend $123 less per patient than New South Wales. Your hospital system provides fewer beds per thousand people than New South Wales. And your hospital performance has been going backwards for five years. Why should you be regarded as some kind of authority on health? And why should patients in other states have to put up with a second-rate system because someone who can’t run his own health system is behaving like a bully?
A rattled Brumby immediately suggested Dunlevy had been given the question, then struggled to respond, falling back on suggesting that regardless of the indicators Dunlevy quoted, it was outcomes that were important. The Australian’s health editor Adam Cresswell explored Victoria’s performance more this morning. And the Prime Minister today began suggesting what government sources have previously mentioned off the record, that Victoria’s record might not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Ted Baillieu must be unable to believe his luck, watching federal Labor prepare a nice package of attack lines for him to use in the Victorian election in November.
Brumby’s Press Club presentation was a weird exercise in mutually incompatible statements. He was insistent that he was looking forward to the COAG discussions and was being positive, yet he spent most of his speech outlining why the federal government’s plan was fundamentally unworkable. His own counter offer amounted to nothing more than a demand for large sums of extra Commonwealth funding in exchange for Victoria continuing to do what it is doing now. Indeed, part of Brumby’s response to Dunlevy’s question was to insist any problems in the Victorian health system were the consequence of insufficient Commonwealth funding.
Mike Rann is right to compare Brumby’s performance on this with his performance on the Murray-Darling Basin. In that instance, Rudd caved in and rewarded Brumby’s intransigence, giving him substantial extra funding for water irrigation infrastructure in exchange for a vague commitment to remove the 4% water trading cap sometime in the distant future. Now Brumby is trying exactly the same tactic on health, while spinning furiously to distract from his state political problems.
Hopefully Rudd learnt from his experience with the Murray-Darling Basin. If you’re going to bribe a Premier, you get their commitment to real reform signed in blood first.
It was a cracker of a question by Dunlevy and it came after some rather benign cheer leading questions from the Victorian journalists so a comfortable Brumby really did look like a bunny in the spotlight. His response reminded me of a Bjelke – Petersen era politician as he channelled his inner Joh and went on the front foot to blame Canberra for not seeing that Victoria is gods own when it comes to health care.
Pure comedy. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the Victorian election.
It would appear the Vic Premier is burning more bridges than he is building. When it comes to the showdown next Monday, my money is on the PM.
To paraphrase Dunlevy “Why should an incompetent bully like you expect other states like NSW to suffer your bottom ranked health service?’ Sounds more like a Today Tonight question to me, merely showing that the tabloid press is not a lot different to the tabloid television. But as Keane et al have committed all their intellectual effort to the re-election of the Rudd government, it’s understandable that he should so admire it. Pity that Brumby is actually right and a pity that showing him to be so will harm Rudd.
What Brumby is doing is called – this is the technical term, so try to stay with us you lay people – “haggling”.
It’s what you do in negotiations to try and get the best deal possible. As a Victorian it is what I would expect from my Premier regardless of which party they and the person they are negotiating with are from. Perhaps Ms Dunlevy would be better off asking her own Premier why are you not fighting harder for a better deal like John Brumby is?
He’s not being a bully, he’s getting the best deal for his constituents. He owes the other states nothing – they don’t pay his wages.
I agree with you David. Brumby seems to think he can sweet talk us with tales of his once ailing daughter then bully his way to more cash once again. I think Rudd’s political skills are a tad more sophisticated. He ain’t finished yet.