Remember all that federal Labor party talk about finally fixing the financing of the public hospital system? Remember those words about no more blame shifting? Well, forget them. Things are back on the same old path where the Commonwealth provides more money and state governments provide less.

First state to make a mockery of the so-called new system that was to guarantee an adequate public hospital system for us all is Tasmania with the state government preparing to drastically reduce its elective surgery budget to rein in health costs. Thousands of elective surgeries will be postponed, reports the ABC, as the Government works to slash the Health Department’s spending by $400 million over the next four years. The Government plans to cut $21.6 million worth of elective surgery over the next nine months.