2023–24 Budget proposals
- Improve the safety of women, children, and older people, by building and scaling up investment in health justice partnership.
- Follow through on the commitment of the National Preventive Health Strategy to increase funding for preventive health and ensure preventive health funding is available beyond healthcare to address the social determinants of health and their impact upon health treatment and outcome
- Improve adult mental health by investing in the capability for Head to Health services to integrate legal assistance as part of a response to the complex needs that arise for people with persistent mental ill-health.
About these proposals
These fully developed and costed proposals draw on our 2022-23 pre-Budget submission, support current policy reform processes, and directly contribute to the Government’s wellbeing agenda. These proposals support existing cross-government frameworks, such as national plans to respond to violence against women and children and older people, the Closing the Gap Agreement, and the National Preventive Health Strategy. These frameworks are based on broad cross-sector and community consultation and are well-placed to contribute to the architecture of a wellbeing agenda.
These proposals are designed to improve health, justice and wellbeing outcomes of individuals and families facing complex health, social and legal need. These investments can be drawn upon in the upcoming review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership Agreement (NLAP), as examples of how NLAP could enable innovation in how legal assistance is provided to reach those most in need. They can be adopted immediately and are urgently needed to address the increased complexity of problems people are experiencing, whether as a result of extreme weather events, the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, or other factors that underlie and compound disadvantage in people’s lives. By improving service capability to identify and intervene earlier to address complex needs, these measures are a cost-effective way to respond to workforce shortages and unmet demand from patients and clients in health and legal services.
Each of these proposals to support service improvement includes a component for building the capability for cross-sector collaboration. This capability is a necessary foundation for the success of each proposal. In this submission, we provide costings for four years to align with the Federal Budget process. Long-term, sustained funding as foundational to the effectiveness of service and system collaboration in response to complexity.
