This year’s Federal Budget has once again seen Australians living with severe mental health challenges left to wait for the support they need. The Mental Health Coalition of South Australia acknowledges, as Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) has noted, that the budget’s decisions about housing, employment, bulk billing, hospital funding and community infrastructure are themselves mental health decisions, whether they are stated that way or not. But acknowledging the broader picture does not excuse the failure to deliver fully funded psychosocial supports for the people who need it most.
CMHA CEO Kerry Hawkins welcomed the budget’s underlying logic — that good economic policy is good mental health policy, and that when people have safe housing, economic security and access to care, the conditions for mental wellbeing follow. The Mental Health Coalition of South Australia shares that view. But good intent and sound logic are not the same as action, and for the hundreds of thousands of Australians living with mental health challenges who do not qualify for the NDIS, intent is not enough.
The main announcement is a $3 billion commitment to Foundational Supports outside the NDIS. CMHA has described this as a signal that the funding is ready. So has Mental Health Australia who has also noted that nearly 500,000 Australians are living with psychosocial disability or severe mental health challenges without adequate support, and has called on all state and territory governments to step up and commit to prioritising them in the next round of Foundational Support funding.
But as Kerry Hawkins cautioned, a budget is an announcement. The policy is in the detail that follows over the coming months, as Foundational Supports are negotiated with states, as the NDIS New Planning Framework takes effect, and as commissioning processes begin. A funding commitment is not the same as a sustainable and accountable service system. CMHA has rightly identified that an independent, adequately funded National Mental Health Commission is essential to drive accountability through this transformation — and that this budget has missed a critical opportunity to establish one in a timely manner.
The NDIS reform context adds urgency to these concerns. Tighter eligibility and reduced plan funding carry real risk for Australians with psychosocial disability. No one should leave the NDIS without an accessible alternative already in place. Reform without a safety net, as CMHA has stated plainly, is an unacceptable risk.
The people who need these supports have waited long enough. The Mental Health Coalition of South Australia will continue to campaign for the unmet needs of people needing psychosocial supports to be fully funded. The negotiation of the new National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement over the coming 12 months is our next opportunity.
You can read the CMHA media release here, and Mental Health Australia’s response here.
