Speak Out June 2018

Federal Budget 2018–19 summary

T he federal government will increase investment by $12.4 billion in health, Indigenous health, aged care and sport over four years and continue to advance the four pillars of the long term national health plan: guaranteeing Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS); supporting hospitals; prioritising mental health, preventive health and sport; and investing in medical research. The government will increase Medicare funding by $4.8 billion, public hospital funding by $30.2 billion, investment in new medicines by $2.4 billion and funding for aged care by $5 billion. The federal government is looking to deliver stronger health services for regional Australia to put more highly qualified doctors into rural areas. This will be achieved through a focus on teaching, training, recruitment and retention, including the establishment of the More Doctors for Rural Australia Program. The workforce focus for regional Australia continues to be strongly directed toward medical services. The government will provide an additional $30.2 billion public hospital funding under a five-year National Health Reform Agreement (2020-21 to 2024-25). This will deliver $130.2 billion in public hospital funding, currently six of Australia’s eight States and Territories having now signed the agreement. A greater focus on outcomes and transparency of funding will support the ongoing commitment to Closing the Gap in Indigenous health with a total of $10 billion for Indigenous health over the next decade. Suicide prevention, supporting older Australians and a Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission are the focus of an additional $338.1 million in funding for mental health. The government will invest $6 billion in record funding for Australia’s health and medical research sector, including $3.5 billion for the National Health and Medical Research Council, $2 billion in disbursements from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and $500 million from the Biomedical Translation Fund. A $1.3 billion National Health and Medical Research Industry Growth Plan will drive a new era of better health care as well as new jobs and industries, and will include a $500 million Genomics Health Futures Mission. The government will address the challenges of an ageing population by providing a $5 billion increase for aged care support over the forward estimates. This budget will deliver improved quality and safety in aged care and invest $1.6 billion in 14,000 additional high level home care places for those who

choose to live in their home but need extra support. This brings to 20,000 the extra high level packages announced since last year’s budget. This is complemented by an additional 13,500 residential care places and 775 restorative places. From a workforce recruitment and retention perspective, initiatives predominantly relate to medicine still, however the government has committed to fund the Workforce Incentive Program to encourage a range of health professionals, including nurses and allied health professionals to deliver services in rural and remote areas that have experienced difficulty in attracting and retaining them in the past. It is unclear at this stage what this will involve. To help inform tomorrow’s health workforce needs, the government will invest in a number of programs to provide an informed, evidence-based foundation for future planning. This includes the development of a new Health Demand and Supply Utilisation Patterns Planning Tool to capture a single source of geographically based health workforce and services data to better examine – and ultimately meet – local needs. Once again, it is unclear how this will apply to speech pathology, but we will be encouraging the government to ensure that speech pathology and other allied health professions are included, rather than the current focus on medicine and nursing. The government has also outlined investment worth $43.7 billion to support the Coalition’s reform plans for Australia’s education system. Of most relevance to speech pathology are: • Delivering $440.1 million to extend access for pre- schoolers to 15 hours of early learning each week in the year before school to the end of 2019. • The recommendations of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools have all been accepted in principle. A new agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories will be established to ensure schools, teachers and families are armed with the opportunities they need to deliver better outcomes for Australian students.

As is usually the case, the devil is in the detail.

Mark Smith Manager, Policy and Advocacy

6

June 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out