Allied Health Professions Australia and Dementia Australia have expressed concern at the lack of support shown to their respective sectors in the 2025 Federal Budget.
AHPA chief executive officer Bronwyn Morris-Donovon said while the government appeared to have an ambitious health reform agenda, the omission of allied health in the budget is disappointing.
“The 2025-26 Federal Budget held little surprise for the allied health sector. The pace of health system change appears to have slowed from what was a previously ambitious reform agenda,” Ms Morris-Donovon told Australian Ageing Agenda.
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“AHPA was disappointed by the absence of expansion of the prac payments, especially when more than half of the allied health sector is in national workforce shortage. This Budget provides no support for allied health workforce initiatives and the National Allied Health Workforce Strategy remains unfunded.
“Heading into the election AHPA will advocate for funding to support both implementation of the National Allied Health Workforce Strategy and prac payments, among other priority asks.
“We are pleased to see continued funding to support ongoing digital health initiatives. This includes $4.6 million to the Australian Digital Health Agency to complete work with software vendors that support allied health providers to develop connections to My Health Record and deliver education packages to uplift digital capabilities in support of better collaboration and multidisciplinary care.”
Ms Morris-Donovon called the budget is a return to old-school thinking.
“After three years of talk, the Government is still only funding doctors and nurses,” she said.
“While we welcome significant investment into Medicare and measures to grow the GP and nursing workforce, we question the single focus approach. We know that consumers with the most complex health needs benefit from wraparound multidisciplinary team care. There is nothing more disenabling to service innovation than incentivising only one member of the care team.
“Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data shows that 61 per cent of the population live with at least one chronic condition. In a cost of living crisis, access to affordable primary allied health care is critical. Better utilisation and integration of allied health into primary care would ultimately improve access and outcomes for Australian’s living with chronic conditions.”
More needed to reduce impact of dementia
Dementia Australia chief executive officer Tanya Buchanan also expressed her disappointment at the lack of funding to reduce the impact of dementia – soon to be the leading cause of death in Australia.
However, Dementia Australia did acknowledge and welcome the budget measures directed to monitoring dementia data nationally, implementing aged care reforms and making communities more inclusive for people with a disability – including dementia.
Dementia Australia has called for three initiatives to reduce the impact of dementia:
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- launching a national conversation on dementia to raise awareness of the condition and to promote brain health
- establishing a team of dementia specialist navigators within Dementia Australia to improve service support and access
- building the capability of the workforce to provide care and support for people living with dementia with training
“With an estimated 433,300 Australians living with dementia and an estimated 29,000 people living with younger onset dementia – dementia is the public health, disability and aged care challenge facing Australia,” Professor Buchanan said.
“The National Dementia Action Plan requires funding if we are to see it have an impact. The lack of funding to implement this Plan has a real impact on people living with dementia, their families and carers.
“Dementia Australia encourages all parties, independents and candidates to consider how they can support actions to reduce the impact of dementia.”
Dementia Australia executive director services, advocacy and research Dr Kaele Stokes told AAA that Australia cannot afford to wait, and urgent action must be taken now.
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“The 433,300 Australians living with dementia and an estimated 29,000 people living with younger onset dementia cannot afford to wait for action,” Dr Kaele Stokes added.
“Our hospitals, acute care and aged care systems are already overloaded, and with the number of Australians living with dementia expected to double by 2054 urgent action is needed now.
“People living with dementia are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital than people of the same age who don’t have dementia and their length of stay is five times longer than someone without dementia.
“They experience longer waits for residential aged care, and we also know that more than 80,000 people are waiting for home care packages: with two out of three people with dementia living in the community, the need to ensure people have access to the supports they need has never been more important.”
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