The first COAG, co-operative federalism style, has been and gone. It was peace and goodwill all round, with a promise of a new way of doing business. And a photo opportunity. All the right noises were made. Everyone was happy that John Howard was not there. Everybody was rolling up their sleeves and willing to put their shoulders to the wheel---and so on.

CoAG did establish working groups to drive reform in seven key areas--health and ageing; education, skills and early childhood development; climate change and water; infrastructure; business regulation; housing; and indigenous affairs. These will be driven by the relevant federal and state minsters who will not pass the buck.

The states and territories will share an extra $50 million next year — in addition to the $100 million he announced during last month's election campaign — to reduce elective surgery waiting lists by 25,000. Is that a down payment on hospital reform? Or a sign of good will?

The policy shift to preventive health care can be found in the Commonwealth/State Implementation Plans to be delivered to the March 2008 COAG Meeting to tackling elective surgery waiting times; investing in aged care, especially in transition care; invest in public dental programs; preventative health care and GP superclinics.

So who will get what from Canberra? Who will miss out? Which states are willing to get things done? What sort of incentive payments will there be? That's for next year. At this stage the blame game has been put into the historical rubbish bin containing Liberal bodies.

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