Ahead of the next Federal election, the APS, guided by its members, highlights key reforms needed to ensure psychologists can continue delivering critical, lifesaving services to the community.
Pressures on the psychology profession are intensifying. With rising rates of psychological distress, as highlighted in our inaugural Thinking Futures report last year, the already stretched psychology workforce is under even greater strain – yet persistent barriers continue to stand in the way of meaningful relief.
With the steady rise in mental health needs across the country, the psychology profession currently isn't equipped to respond to the growing demand.
"Australia simply doesn't have the resources to support these community members," says Dr Zena Burgess, APS CEO. "Our latest research shows that 27% of psychologists report clients waiting a month for an appointment, while 15% say the wait stretches to nearly two months.
"The 2025-26 Budget presents a crucial opportunity for the Government to ease pressures on the psychology profession – pressures that directly impact the wellbeing of the broader community."
In line with member concerns, the APS has identified key priorities to enhance mental health and wellbeing across Australia.
"Our recommendations align with and support many of the government's existing initiatives," Dr Burgess adds.
These include:
To address some of the most pressing issues facing the psychology profession and broader community, the APS has identified three key objectives:
- Empower victim-survivors of domestic and family violence (DFV) through improved awareness and education about gendered violence for all health practitioners to ensure holistic, appropriate and timely psychological interventions. This initiative focuses on victim-survivors and perpetrators and people at risk of perpetrating.
- Strengthen the psychology workforce to optimise the contribution of psychology and psychologists to mental health and social reform.
- Deliver cost-effective and client-centred reforms to Medicare mental health services, and in particular the Better Access Initiative, to ensure access and affordability for those who need it most – including children, youth and other at-risk groups (e.g., people with severe and complex mental health conditions).
"Our cost benefit analysis confirms that these initiatives aren’t just socially beneficial – they also make strong economic sense," says Dr Burgess.
"Each of the initiatives we've recommended deliver at least $1.60 in benefits to the Australian community for every $1 invested, with many going well beyond this, proving that government support leads to both positive financial returns and meaningful improvements in mental health and wellbeing across Australia."
Below, we unpack some of the key recommendations the APS is sharing in its 2025-26 Pre-Budget Submission ahead of the upcoming Federal election.
1. Addressing domestic and family violence
The upcoming Thinking Futures report, which this year focuses on women and girls' mental health and wellbeing, illustrates the level of concern that psychologists and the broader community have regarding the occurrence and mental health impacts of domestic, family and sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls in Australia.
Almost 8 in 10 (78%) of all Australians felt it was very or extremely important for the government to address family domestic and sexual violence against girls and women and the majority (70%) consider DFV to be the most pressing wellbeing issue affecting women and girls.
"We need to get serious about this," says Dr Burgess. "We can't keep writing reports and tabling plans to address this issue when one woman is killed as a result of family and domestic violence every 11 days in Australia, and every 10 minutes on a global scale. We need to prioritise action."
A bolstered psychology profession is a key element to address these levels of DFV in Australia. As per Ahpra's 2024 Australian Health Practitioner regulator's joint statement, there is an essential role for health practitioners to play in the "early identification support, referral and delivery of specialised treatment of those experiencing family violence".
"Psychologists play a vital role in a victim-survivor’s recovery," says Dr Burgess. "Our latest research shows that 78% of Australians see psychologists as trusted professionals providing essential services. Strengthening the profession is crucial to ensuring they can continue this critical work."
With this in mind, the APS, on behalf of its members, is calling for:
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Free online training for health professionals to support women and children facing violence.
APS proposes the development and delivery of a free, online training program to equip psychologists and other health practitioners with the skills to provide support to women and children experiencing violence. The training would also help them to identify individuals at risk of using violence and apply early intervention strategies to mitigate harm.
This critical training, which would be trauma-informed, culturally sensitive and co-produced with lived experience advocates, clinical and research experts, is much needed.
"Our latest research shows that nearly half of Australians [47%] want greater mental health education for GPs," says Dr Burgess. "We see this training equipping around 1,500 health professionals, serving as a scalable model for future government investment."
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Better access to mental health support for victim-survivors of DFV
The APS is advocating for a new MBS item number with modified criteria to improve access to psychological care. Proposed changes include removing the requirement for a GP mental health plan or referral, eliminating the need for a GP diagnosis before a client can see a psychologist, and allowing claims based on a psychologist’s clinical judgment that a client is experiencing or has experienced DFV.
"Many victim-survivors of DFV also face coercive control or financial abuse. This is why removing unnecessary barriers is essential to ensuring they can access the support they need," says Dr Burgess.
To address this, the APS is calling for the creation of a dedicated service, including specialised training for psychologists, to serve as volunteer responders, providing support after particularly distressing client situations and conducting ongoing welfare checks as required.
"We've successfully implemented a similar program through our Disaster Response Network, which supports frontline workers following natural disasters. In 2024 alone, our volunteers conducted nearly 350 wellbeing checks for first responders, made possible by the government's existing investment in the program.
"Expanding this model to support DFV workers would be a vital step in strengthening the resilience of this critical workforce and ensuring they can continue their essential work in the community."
Read more about our Budget initiatives on this topic on page 19 of our 2025-26 Pre-Budget Submission.
2. Better support for psychology students
Becoming a registered psychologist is a demanding journey that requires significant time, effort and financial commitment. Master of Professional Psychology (MPP) students must complete 300 hours of placement within a year, while those pursuing a higher degree in an Area of Practice Endorsement (AoPE) undertake 1,000 hours over two years.
The extensive placement requirements, while essential for developing clinical expertise, can place a heavy financial and logistical burden on students striving to enter the profession.
For these reasons, many would-be psychologists are simply choosing to take different study and career pathways.
"The psychology workforce in Australia is only meeting 35% of the projected national demand," says Dr Burgess.
For this reason, the APS is strongly advocating for psychology students to be included in the Commonwealth Prac Payment initiative. Introduced last year, this program provides weekly payments of $319.50 (from July 2025) to nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students completing mandatory practical training.
"While we fully support this initiative and recognise the vital contributions of students from these professions, we are deeply disappointed that psychology postgraduate students were excluded," says Dr Burgess.
"Psychology graduates form the backbone of Australia’s mental health workforce. They deserve the same financial support as these other professions – especially given the significant HECS debts many face upon completing their studies."
In addition to the inclusion of psychology Commonwealth Prac Payments, the APS is also calling for the development of an evidence-based National Psychology Workforce Strategy.
"We need to invest into learning more about how we can equip and future-proof our psychology workforce," says Dr Burgess.
This process would include:
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A co-design process with key stakeholders (including psychologists, clients, people with lived experience, employers and funding bodies, psychology higher education providers, government representatives and academic experts);
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Qualitative and quantitative research through a human-centred design methodology to identify and understand the drivers and barriers to optimal workforce participation for psychologists;
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A roundtable with key stakeholders to discuss pivotal discovery findings and to initiate the process of developing sustainable, testable solutions; and
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A final report delivered to the government, with clear recommendations for action.
"There is a critical need to understand how psychologists actually work, including the barriers which prevent them from working to their full potential. The statistics and data we currently have access to only give us a very limited view of our workforce,” says Dr Burgess.
“We've seen how well-meaning government health workforce reforms based on this incomplete picture have been unsuccessful in the past. We are confident that this initiative will lead to an increase in the total workforce capacity of the psychology workforce and would identify opportunities for psychologists to work to their full scope of practice.”
Dr Burgess also highlights additional benefits, including better utilisation of psychologists beyond mental health care – such as in leadership roles – greater efficiency in government investment in psychology training programs, and increased economic participation from the psychology workforce, which is predominantly made up of women working part-time.
Read more about our Budget initiatives on this topic on page 21 of our 2025-26 Pre-Budget Submission.
3. Improving access for those who need it most
APS research confirms that cost remains the biggest barrier to accessing mental health support, followed closely by limited availability of local services.
"The people who need support the most are often the ones facing the greatest obstacles," says Dr Burgess. "For example, those in rural and remote areas struggle to secure timely appointments in accessible locations, while young people – who are particularly vulnerable to mental ill-health – face significant cost barriers.”
As a result of these challenges, a greater burden is placed on the government and taxpayers, says Dr Burgess, as these unmet mental health needs then place greater demands on GPs and emergency responders.
To remedy this, the APS is calling for improved access and affordability, specifically by:
"Economic research on the impact of the Better Access Initiative suggests that increasing rebates will boost the clinical FTE of psychologists providing MBS services and encourage more psychologists to work in non-metropolitan areas – especially when combined with other initiatives under this objective," says Dr Burgess.
Other initiatives that the APS is calling for include:
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Bulk billing incentives provided for psychologists' services based on the time-adjusted equivalent rate to bulk billing incentives provided for GPs, including scaled incentives for clients who live in rural and remote areas.
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Psychologist-determined support in Better Access. This would mean that psychologists, not GPs, have the authority to work with their clients to determine the clinically number of sessions of sessions required for a client's treatment (up to 40 sessions per year for higher complexity conditions and up to 20 sessions for all other conditions).
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Streamlining GP Mental Health Reviews so they don't need to occur at the sixth session (as it currently stands) and instead can occur at the end of the treatment phase. This would lessen the financial burden of clients needing to engage in extra GP consultations, reduce the administrative burden on both psychologists and GPs, and remove further barriers that prevent the continuity of care.
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Improving youth access to psychology services by the introduction of a $0 youth mental health Medicare safety net threshold for Better Access sessions for those aged 14-25.
Read more about our Budget initiatives on this topic on page 23 of our 2025-26 Pre-Budget Submission.
Building a more resilient Australia
Dr Burgess these initiatives would play a critical role in building a healthier and more resilient community – one where mental health support is fairer, accessible, sustainable and meets the needs of all Australians.
Dr Burgess extends her gratitude to the many APS members whose feedback helped to shape the key initiatives put forward in this year’s Pre-Budget Submission.
“We are extremely grateful for the ongoing support, expertise and contributions of our membership. Despite the economic, social and health challenges on the rise, we strongly believe that the initiatives outlined in this paper provide practical, evidence-based measures to strengthen mental health and wellbeing across the entire country.
"By investing in these initiatives, the government can not only provide immediate relief to those in need but also lay the foundation for long-term improvements in Australia’s psychology profession and mental health system.”
APS members can read the full Pre-Budget Submission here.