Australia's food bowl will come under commonwealth control for the first time after Victoria ended its resistance to the $10 billion Murray Darling Basin rescue plan at Wednesday's Council of Australian Governments Meeting in Adelaide.
The states and territories gave the green light to federal funding for 50,000 new healthcare workers and a national registration scheme for doctors and health workers, despite opposition from the Australian Medical Association.
A shake-up of the way federal money is delivered was also approved, whereby 90 tied grants will be streamlined into just five funding areas.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting chief executive Peter Anderson applauded the agreement on the Murray Darling Basin, but stressed how to achieve more effective urban water markets also needed consideration.
He said the streamlining of funding would provide taxpayers with more for their dollars.
"The new arrangements applying to commonwealth and state funding and the major rationalisation of special purpose payments with the emphasis on the states and territories achieving measured outcomes, has the capacity to deliver better value for taxpayer dollars," Anderson said.
Australian General Practice Network chair Tony Hobbs said the extra 50,000 training places for health professionals and the national registration scheme for doctors were both good initiatives.
"National registration is a win for patients and a win for health professionals. This system will reduce red tape and improve transparency," he said.
"We have requested that all professions affected be consulted on the details of the model before the implementation stage."
Rural Doctors' Association of Australia president Peter Rischbieth welcomed the extra training places but stressed more fully trained doctors, nurses and other health professionals were still urgently needed in the bush.
"It is tremendous that the federal government, together with the states and territories, is making a major commitment to build the health support workforce in Australia," Dr Rischbieth said.
"But it should be emphasised that these workers will be support staff to fully trained health professionals, not health professionals in their own right."
Nationally, at least 16,000 more health professionals, 1000 doctors, 5,400 nurses and 1,700 dentists were needed to ensure access to basic healthcare in the bush, Dr Rischbieth said.
