Paul Keating urged me to work with Dominic Perrottet, Daniel Andrews reveals

Andrews, who along with his NSW counterpart, Dominic Perrottet, announced a shake-up of preschool education on Thursday, said he had contacted Perrottet at the urging of Keating.

Andrews criticised the wasted years of the former federal government, saying serious national challenges had been neglected as a result of its political divisions.

For the energy sector, Andrews said the sharp focus brought to the issue by the current crisis would bring urgency to solving the problem.

On the need for reform of the health sector, he said the federal government needed to give the states an extension of the 50-50 funding deal struck to cover pandemic related costs, while broader reform was pursued.

He said that the states could not wait until 2025 when the current national health partnership expired to pursue reform, and said the state was confident the two tiers of government could tackle the way the primary health network interfaced with hospitals.

The need for a shake-up of the primary health network to take pressure off hospitals has been publicly backed by Perrottet, the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, and the Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, in the lead up to the national cabinet meeting.