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After-hours access to primary medical care will be extended as state and territory leaders meet to discuss improving health outcomes.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is convening national cabinet in Brisbane to consider health, housing, the NDIS, skills and the transition to net-zero emissions.

Ahead of the meeting, the government announced it would extend funding for after-hours programs that were due to end in June.

Funding will also go towards new programs to improve access to primary care services.

The money will come out of the Strengthening Medicare fund, to which the government committed $750 million in its October budget.

Mr Albanese said he hoped the talks at national cabinet would lead to more efficient outcomes in the system.

"We're talking about a better future for the federation, making sure that we get better health outcomes, particularly how do we improve, from the commonwealth's perspective, GPs and primary health care in order to take pressure off the public hospital system," he said at the start of the meeting on Friday.

"We'll also talk about housing service delivery across the board in the lead up to our budget, which is now just less than two weeks away."

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said grants that would allow for doctors to stay open after hours would be strengthened.

"This money for after-hours services will support them to stay open," she told Seven's Sunrise program on Friday.

"We've got a big job to fix Medicare, there's no doubt about it, but we are committed to the task."

Health Minister Mark Butler said bolstering Medicare and rebuilding general practice were the government's priorities.

"Being able to access a doctor after hours is critical for patients to get what they need, when they need it, taking the pressure off hospitals," he said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said his priority was ensuring people in his state had fast and free access to local GPs.

"We urgently need to pay GPs more so Victorians pay less, increase university places to get a pipeline of new doctors across the nation, attract GPs from overseas to Australia faster and break down the barriers between primary care and our hospital system," he said.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the Medicare system needed more support.

"Wrangling the state premiers has become a bit of a national sport," she told Seven's Sunrise program.

"People need access to doctors, and absolutely, that discussion today is a vital one. We do need to have our healthcare system back where it was."

Mr Albanese said he had already had constructive discussions with premiers and chief ministers.

It will be the first national cabinet meeting for newly elected NSW Premier Chris Minns and the last before the federal budget in May.

© AAP 2023

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The US Coast Guard has taken the difficult decision to suspend the search for an Australian man who went overboard from a Hawaii-bound cruise ship.

The passenger went overboard from the Quantum of the Seas on Tuesday night, local time, nearly two weeks after the cruise left Brisbane for its journey to the Hawaiian islands.

Discussions with the man's next of kin and the Australian consulate, as well as relevant case information, helped inform the the decision, search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Cooper said in a statement.

"The coast guard has made the difficult decision to suspend the active search for the passenger aboard the Quantum of the Seas," he said.

The incident happened in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres south of Kailua-Kona, on the west coast of Hawaii's Big Island.

The cruise ship deployed six life rings and stayed in the area for two hours before continuing on its way, with the coast guard taking over the search on Wednesday morning.

A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircrew completed five searches over the course of six hours while on scene.

The operation came as passengers left the cruise ship in Honolulu, where it docked after 15 days at sea.

One of those on board, Susan Whittington, said passengers were given little information about what had happened after they were woken at night by the ship shuddering to a halt.

"We were wondering what was going on and it was followed by an announcement over the intercom saying that a passenger had gone overboard," she told Nine's Today program.

"You couldn't really see much, just the lights searching the area, but then it was very late at night.

"It was almost impossible to see anything in the water, so we didn't hold hope for there being an outcome from it. It was quite distressing and there weren't a lot of details after that."

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The US Coast Guard is continuing its search for an Australian man who went overboard from a Hawaii-bound cruise ship as hopes fade for the passenger's chances of survival.

The man went overboard from the Quantum of the Seas on Tuesday night, local time, nearly two weeks after the cruise left Brisbane for its journey to the Hawaiian islands.

The incident happened in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres south of Kailua-Kona, on the west coast of Oahu.

The cruise ship deployed six life rings and stayed in the area for two hours before continuing on its way, with the coast guard taking over the search on Wednesday morning.

The search was suspended for the night but recommenced at first light on Thursday, or Friday morning Australian time.

The operation came as passengers left the cruise ship in Honolulu, where it docked after 15 days at sea.

One of those on board, Susan Whittington, said passengers were given little information about what had happened after they were woken at night by the ship shuddering to a halt.

"We were wondering what was going on and it was followed by an announcement over the intercom saying that a passenger had gone overboard," she told Nine's Today program.

"You couldn't really see much, just the lights searching the area, but then it was very late at night.

"It was almost impossible to see anything in the water, so we didn't hold hope for there being an outcome from it. It was quite distressing and there weren't a lot of details after that."

© AAP 2023

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Jerry Springer, the one-time mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons, has died aged 79.

Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, The Jerry Springer Show was a favourite US guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey's show.

Springer called it "escapist entertainment" while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in the country's social values.

"Jerry's ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word," Jene Galvin, a family spokesman and friend of Springer's since 1970, in a statement.

"He's irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely but memories of his intellect, heart and humour will live on."

Springer died peacefully at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said

On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as "Talk show host, ringmaster of civilisation's end".

After more than 4000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as "Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight," "Stop Pimpin' My Twin Sister" and "Hooking Up With My Therapist".

In a "Too Hot For TV" video released as his daily show neared seven million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defence against disgust.

"Look, television does not and must not create values, it's merely a picture of all that's out there - the good, the bad, the ugly," Springer said, adding: "Believe this: the politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be".

He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them.

Gerald Norman Springer was born February 13, 1944, in a London underground railway station being used as a bomb shelter.

His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, in which other relatives were killed in Nazi gas chambers.

They arrived in the United States when their son was five and settled in the Queens borough of New York City.

He studied political science at Tulane University and got a law degree from Northwestern University.

He entered politics as an aide in Robert F Kennedy's ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign.

Springer ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.

In 1974 - in what The Cincinnati Enquirer reported as "an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati's political community" - Springer resigned.

He cited "very personal family considerations" but what he did not mention was a vice probe involving prostitution.

In a subsequent admission that could have been the basis for one of his future shows, Springer said he had paid prostitutes with personal cheques.

Then 30, he had married Micki Velton the previous year.

The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.

Springer quickly bounced back politically, winning a council seat in 1975 and serving as mayor in 1977.

He later became a local television politics reporter with popular evening commentaries.

Springer began his talk show in 1991 with more of a traditional format but after he left WLWT in 1993, it got a sleazy makeover.

It made Springer a celebrity who would go on to host a radio talk show and America's Got Talent, star in a movie called Ringmaster and compete on Dancing With the Stars.

"With all the joking I do with the show, I'm fully aware and thank God every day that my life has taken this incredible turn because of this silly show," Springer told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2011.

© AP 2023