State and territory leaders have arrived in Canberra for COAG meetings with the Turnbull government, which are expected to focus on a redress scheme for child abuse victims, a national plan on cyberbullying and new targets for reducing Indigenous disadvantage.
Already the leaders are locking heads on a new hospital funding agreement, with some Labor states asking for more money than Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is offering.
The government has suggested a capped 6.5 per cent annual increase in hospital funding from 2020 for five years, working out to around $30 billion in total. The Commonwealth will continue to pay 45 percent of the hospitals budget, which is the same as the current level.
"We have put forward a generous funding offer that provides stability and certainty and is entirely consistent with the current arrangements and it goes out to 2025," Mr Turnbull said at the beginning of the meeting.
But already, several states have complained the funding would not be enough to keep hospitals running smoothly.
The Labor premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, said the Coalition's offer was unacceptable.
"I will not short-change Victorian patients by signing up to an inadequate funding arrangement," he told reporters in Canberra.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would only consider a deal when her state was paid what it was still owed, while WA Premier Mark McGowan said he was likely to sign the deal anyway to guarantee funding certainty.
South Australia goes alone on redress scheme
Mr Turnbull said he was "looking forward to the states and territories coming on board" with a Commonwealth scheme for paying redress to victims of institutional child sex abuse, many of whom gave evidence to the recently concluded Royal Commission.
Mr Turnbull said federal Labor and the Coalition wanted to ensure victims could access the scheme no matter where they lived.
But one state said it would not sign up to Mr Turnbull's proposal.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said his state was happy to help design the national scheme, but would not be directly involved because it had already begun its own process.
"Unlike other states, we already moved on this almost 10 years ago now," the Labor premier told ABC Radio on Friday.
The prime minister said the leaders would also discuss new targets for reducing Indigenous disadvantage.
The latest Closing the Gap report, released this week, found existing targets were not being met, and are now due to expire.
There will also be meetings on a unified national approach to combating online bullying.
- with AAP
