Each year, the Pre-Budget Submission to Treasury is our opportunity to put our voice
forward on behalf of members and Australians alike.
The Federal Budget is a critical opportunity to include measures which directly support the resilience and wellbeing of each member of the Australian community. It also plays a hugely important role as it sets the framework for many of the APS’ advocacy priorities throughout the year and is the catalyst for many actions we take as an organisation.
To support the submission and the individual recommendations within it, we produce many proposals and statements, conduct strategic media campaigns, meet with government ministers and department representatives, and engage in a whole raft of other actions all driving toward our unified advocacy goals.
Build, support, prepare
Our APS Pre-Budget Submission 2023-24 outlines three sets of initiatives which will have a significant positive and measurable social and economic impact on the Australian community if supported by the Federal Government.
Build – A strong psychology workforce
Improve the mental health and wellbeing of our communities through strengthening the psychology workforce, including increasing psychology placements, building the capability of the psychology workforce and reducing the wait-time for patients to see psychologists.
The 2023-24 Budget provides an opportunity to invest in change to address the critical shortage of psychologists in Australia. Australians need access to evidence-based, high-quality psychological assessment, diagnosis and treatment to support their wellbeing, economic participation and engagement in the community. However, the current psychology workforce only meets 35 per cent of the national demand for psychologists in mental health services.
The APS proposes measures which will strengthen the psychology workforce by ensuring a sustainable and diverse training pipeline, as well as support for psychologists in practice.
Our proposed measures address the drivers of equitable access to psychological services, ensuring Australians can access timely and expert psychological services no matter where they are located or their financial circumstances.
Support – Better mental health
Address issues related to access and equity in relation to psychological services within the Better Access initiative and the MBS more generally, including making it easier to access psychological treatment, supporting psychologists to deliver services to rural and remote communities and making full use of psychologists’ expertise to support people with chronic health conditions.
While the Better Access initiative has enabled millions of Australians to access effective and high-quality psychological treatment, more needs to be done to provide a sustainable and equitable model for both patients and psychologists. The need for psychological services has never been greater and has been compounded by the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given the recent Better Access Evaluation, the 2023-24 Budget is a critical time to invest in initiatives which are important to the Australian community, as well as those that have a significant quantitative return on investment.
There are many vulnerable groups and cohorts who require more support through the Better Access initiative. Both the continuation of existing measures, and the introduction of simple improvements to mental health services as part of the Better Access initiative would lead to advancements in mental health care for all Australians.
Prepare – Disaster readiness and resilience
Build resilience in Australian communities. Assist the APS to build the capacity of psychologists to work with individuals and communities to prepare for and respond to disasters through the APS Disaster Response Network (DRN), and to support our children and young people, including in response to potential climate change events, by building resilience and improving their mental health and wellbeing.
The 2023-24 Budget is a timely opportunity to strengthen resilience in our communities by improving our disaster preparedness and response, and to focus on building optimism and confidence in our children and young people through better mental health.
There is a growing need to scale up a disaster-ready psychology workforce to better support preventative actions and early interventions in disaster-prone communities, and in response to the increasing number of severe climate-related events occurring in Australia.
The current cost of disasters (estimated at $38 billion p.a.) is likely to almost double to $73 billion p.a. by 2060, even under a low-emissions scenario. As such, the APS joins with other experts to call for national investment in disaster resilience and mitigation activities as the most effective way to protect people and communities from these impacts.
A strong economic case
We take our position as the peak body for psychology seriously, and so economic modelling and data-informed proposals
are our standard. This is prudent at a time when the government continues to cite budget constraints.
To this end, the solutions we are advocating for include economic modelling. The APS commissioned a rapid cost benefit analysis (CBA) by advisory firm ACIL Allen to measure the economic value of our initiatives. The firm, which authored the Federal Government’s consultation draft for the National Mental Health Workforce Strategy, found each initiative is projected to generate economic returns between $2.52 and $3.74 for every dollar invested, based on conservative models.
Find out more
To better understand the work we do and they ways it benefits you, our members,
and the wider community, read the full Pre-Budget submission.