Person-centred, collaborative service responses to intersecting health justice need are vital. If we are to tackle the complex needs facing our communities in the years ahead, we will need bold government leadership to shift the systems and structures that hold people in disadvantage and that undermine the impact of health, legal and other services. This includes cross-government investment in shared outcomes across policy portfolios and in building the capability of practitioners and peer leaders to partner towards these outcomes.
With the federal election now just days away, we have taken the opportunity to summarise how the Australian Government could hit the ground running in the new term, towards improving health, justice, and wellbeing across our communities.
6 ways the next Australian Government can improve health, justice and wellbeing.
1. Take decisive action on climate change.
Climate change is a health justice issue. We saw it in the impacts of the 2019-2020 bushfires, and we are seeing it again in the heightened vulnerability of communities recently impacted by extreme flooding. We support ACOSS’s calls for fair, fast and inclusive climate action.
2. Enshrine a First Nations Voice to Parliament protected by the Constitution.
Health Justice Australia unequivocally supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The Uluru Statement is foundational for change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.
3. Fully implement the recommendations of the Closing the Gap Report 2022.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations are leaders in providing integrated care, improving social and emotional wellbeing, including through health justice partnership. The Government should increase investment in models and approaches which are self-determined and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led.
4. Finalise an ambitious National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.
Health justice partnerships are already working effectively to respond to the intersecting health, legal and social needs of people experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence. The Government must learn from and build on this investment to date through the new Plan.
5. Deliver on the promise of transformational change in mental health policy and practice.
The Government needs to think beyond a single mental health system to fund responses that account for complex intersecting factors that contribute to mental ill-health. The integration of legal help into mental health service delivery is a key opportunity to realise the potential of collaborative care as a response to the complex needs that arise for people with persistent mental ill-health.
6. Commit to the full implementation of the National Preventative Health Strategy,
acknowledging the many social determinants that contribute to people’s health, including the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and work. This includes recognising that by working collaboratively in partnership, health and legal services can address the often complex and intersecting problems in people’s lives in ways they never could alone.
In the lead up to the election, we have been briefing key parliamentarians across parties and will be knocking on the doors of relevant minsters and their offices as soon as the Government is formed post-election. We will continue to collaborate with service leaders and practitioners across the health justice landscape to influence the priorities of Government, through our HJP leaders engagement and our practitioner network tutorials.
Please get in touch with Kate Finch, Strategic Innovation Manager kate.finch@healthjustice.org.au if you would like more information or want to get involved.