NATIONAL
$1.1b health shake-up bid
A $1.1 billion health services shake-up spearheads an all-government reform plan to make Australians more healthy, wealthy and wise.
Prime Minister John Howard joined state and territory leaders yesterday in promising extra medical places at universities to overcome chronic doctor shortages.
Following former WA premier Geoff Gallop's depression-induced retirement, the leaders also agreed on a fresh approach to mental health.
They set June as the deadline for a detailed plan for extra support services and new ways to combat the growing role of illicit drugs in mental illnesses plaguing the young.
The Council of Australian Governments also endorsed Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' national reform blueprint for raising productivity through improved skills, literacy and numeracy, as well as an assault on red tape.
"We need to be more competitive, use the capacity of our people and to make sure they are better trained, better skilled, healthier, fitter," Mr Bracks said.
However the Premier was blocked in his bid for the states to receive up-front payments as an early dividend of further reform.
In a meeting hailed by all participants as one of the most co-operative, the leaders settled on a five-year $1.1 billion health package.
Key elements included:
CREATING a national health phone network to provide 24-hour advice.
BOOSTING university medical places to ease the doctor shortage.
FINDING better accommodation for young people in nursing homes.
MOVING elderly people out of public hospitals and into aged-care homes.
Mr Howard said the summit was "unbelievably successful". "(Australians) are fed up with governments failing to agree on important long-term issues," he said.
However the enthusiasm of state Labor premiers was not shared by federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, who accused the Howard Government of taking a decade to realise mental health systems needed reform.
"Certainly there are issues in relation to mental health and in relation to marijuana," he said.
Mr Howard said the practice of closing large mental institutions and placing patients back in the community had been one factor in the crisis.
But society's tolerance of recreational drug use had added to the problem.
"I think at least a generation of Australians were too passive about the consequences of illicit drug use," Mr Howard said.
However Odyssey House boss David Crosbie said singling out illicit drug use was only one part of the mental health problem.
Australian Parliament House, where the COAG meeting was held
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and state and territory leaders have promised to spend an extra AU$1.1 billion on mental health over the next five years. The funding is part of a broad strategy to improve the standard of mental health care, and includes additional places for medical students and a national phone advice network.

The announcement was made at the Council of Australian Governments meeting. NSW Premier Morris Iemma praised the plan. "At long last there is real hope for the mentally ill and their families," he said.

The focus of the strategy will be prevention and early detection. This includes a tougher stance on cannabis cultivation. In the past few weeks the Prime Minister and a number of state Premiers have linked cannabis use to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

The number of medicine positions at universities will be increased by increasing the cap on full fee paying students. Loan assistance for medical students will also be increased.

Federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley was critical of the announcement, saying that the mental health system has been in need of reform for ten years.