Members Policy Forum - 25 June 2025

At our June Members Policy Forum, we welcomed 180 attendees representing 125 of our 151 members to Canberra for our first Policy Forum of 2025. We came together in Canberra and online, to reflect on national mental health reform and advocacy priorities.  

We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing, the Hon. Mark Butler MP, to share his insights with our members. Minister Butler outlined some key priorities for this next term of government, including building on the foundations laid in the previous term of government; delivering the significant election commitments that were pledged, that focus on scaling up access to free mental health supports; and working with state and territory governments to both respond to the increasing levels of distress among young people, and fill the gap in supports for people with psychosocial disability.  

We also welcomed Productivity Commissioners Angela Jackson and Selwyn Button to our Forum, who provided a much-anticipated overview of the newly released interim report from their review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. The commissioners highlighted the significant opportunities to improve the foundations of the system through the next Agreement. This includes developing a national mental health strategy, to ensure there is a clear long-term vision to guide reform efforts; improving governance and accountability structures; and clarifying roles and responsibilities across the system. I’ll have more to say on the Productivity Commission’s findings and recommendations shortly.

Throughout the day, we heard from government, sector and lived experience leaders. Common themes across these conversations included the important role of the sector in working together, and with government, to drive change; getting the balance right of investing in long-term reform, while also meeting the immediate needs of the community in the short-term; filling critical gaps in our system architecture, such as strengthening data, reporting and accountability mechanisms; and the need to take a whole-of-government approach to improve mental health.  

During the forum, we also reflected on the significant changes underway in lived experience leadership. We acknowledged the remarkable contributions of both the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum and the National Register of Mental Health Consumers and Carers – which both close on 30 June. We heard from the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, Mental Health Carers Australia and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre – who will be leading national lived experience advocacy going forward – on the importance of centring the expertise of people with lived experience and their families, carers and kin, and walking together to achieve change.