Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbot is for results, and anti-process

At least the Australians have an open mind about healthcare. In Britain, closed minds are busy ensuring that one day soon, it’ll close down.

As we in England head for bed and you antipodeans wake up, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is set to reveal his government’s plan to overhaul the way public hospitals are funded and operated. It is expected the Prime Minister will move to have the Commonwealth fund public hospitals but stop short of taking control of their day-to-day operation from the states.

Rudd is also set to renew his threat of going to the public with a referendum on a full takeover if things do not improve.

Speaking in Brisbane on Tuesday Mr Rudd said he expected to “cop a bit of stick” from the states over the proposal but he would not elaborate on its details.

Let me tell you Aussies, it feels so good to hear any politician say something like ‘cop a bit of stick’. Because here in Pommieland, pc constipation ensures that such language would be regarded as ‘institutional bullying’.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Mr Rudd’s plan will lead to more process with no result.

“You’ve got state bureaucracies in New South Wales and Queensland which are proven failures,” he said, “You’ve got a federal bureaucracy which is obviously pretty ordinary at delivering services as you’ve seen from the pink batts disaster.

How great it must be to have an open debate. In the dear old UK of GB&NI, anyone even daring to suggest that the National Health Service (NHS )is anything less than an immortal Goddess is greeted with demands for their public execution.

We are also unfortunate enough to have as Minister of Health one Andrew Burnham, a berk who signed off as one of our finest a hospital which was busy killing people with near-Nazi efficiency. This institution is Stafford hospital. Stafford is Britain’s Capital of Social Meltdown: an area where the cops are bent, the social workers are mad, and the Council is broke.

But we Brits are good at rewarding failure, which is why the clown in charge of Stafford’s Health Authority – Sir David Nicholson – got promoted to be CEO of the whole damned NHS.

Only in Britain, never in Australia.

You may have spotted by now that I’m licking you guys all over, and there’s a very good reason for this. Poms comme moi would very much like to immigrate down under, but the restrictions are getting tighter….especially for old fart intellectuals with a penchant for noticing facts.

There’s another reason, by the way. My daughter is a huge fan of Oz, and a guest in your Land right now. She wants a career down there, and is as good a marketing person as you’ll find. So give her a job. You won’t regret it.