Premiers win, Gillard loses, says Abbott

Any deal reached on national health reform is a big win for state premiers and a humiliating backdown for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the federal opposition says.
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on Sunday was being "carefully stage managed" to look like a victory for Ms Gillard, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
"Anyone can get a deal by backing down on all of their key demands, which is essentially what the Prime Minister has been doing over the last few days," Mr Abbott said.
"It looks like this is a big win for the premiers and a humiliating backdown for the prime minister."
Ms Gillard is meeting with state and territory leaders in Canberra to try to reach an agreement over her proposed health reforms.
Ms Gillard was forced to come up with a new health deal which jettisoned much of what all but one of the states and territories agreed to at last year's COAG meeting.
Mr Abbott said it was clear there would be "neither national funding nor true Labor control" coming out of any deal.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was "dead right" when he said hospital reform was about locally run, nationally funded hospitals, Mr Abbott said.
"I can fully understand why Kevin Rudd stormed out of the cabinet meeting on Thursday night.
"The prime minister said this was going to be the year of decisions and delivery.
"Instead it's going to be a year of backflips and broken promises."