Election 2016
Mental Health Australia is asking party leaders to support mental health during this 2016 Federal Election campaign. We cannot let the important reforms taking place in the mental health system be forgotten during the current electoral cycle.
Earlier in the election campaign, we wrote to party leaders outlining five long-term measures they can commit to and in doing so show their support for mental health by committing to long-term measures to improve mental health outcomes in Australia.
The major parties have now all responded to our letter and we have produced a report card summarising their commitments. The report card, along with the full responses, can be downloaded below and our media release is available here.
The report card has been updated to reflect the Coalition’s policy announcement made on 26 June.
Report Card
Major party responses:
Mental health policy announcements
Coalition
- 2016 Coalition Election Policy - Strengthen Mental Health in Australia
- https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2016/06/26/coalitions-plan-strengthen-mental-health-care-across-australia
- http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2015-ley151126.htm
- http://www.health.gov.au/internet/budget/publishing.nsf/Content/budget2016-factsheet04.htm
- http://minister.dva.gov.au/media_releases/2016/may/va035.htm
ALP
- http://www.alp.org.au/mentalhealth?_ga=1.242018946.1082333456.1466403361
- http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/national_plan_for_excellence_in_perinatal_mental_health
- http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/a_national_approach_to_suicide_prevention
- http://www.billshorten.com.au/labor_s_plan_for_healthy_communities_chronic_disease_prevention
Australian Greens
- http://greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/20160523_Mental%20Health.pdf
- http://greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/20160525_Rural%20Health.pdf
What did we ask for?
For the mental health of all Australians to flourish, we need to maintain a long-term, cross-party commitment to the following objectives:
- A reduction in national suicide rates
- Improvements in the physical health of people with a mental illness
- An increase in employment rates for mental health consumers and carers
- Improvements in mental health consumer and carer participation and choice
- Maintaining current overall levels of investment in mental health, while ensuring that capacity to deliver services is not reduced.
What can you do to help?
- Contact party leaders and/or candidates in your local area and call on them to sign up to our five long term measures.
- Circulate our report card to help keep pressure on all parties
- Help promote the campaign via social media using the hashtags #mentalhealth #Election2016
Download our information pack via the link below to access a range of resources to help with promotion.
Attachment | Kind | Size |
---|---|---|
Mental Health Australia Report Card - Updated 26 June | 894.1 KB | |
Coalition response | 217.5 KB | |
ALP response | 331.8 KB | |
Australian Greens response | 146.36 KB | |
Information pack | DOCX | 271.78 KB |
Letter to major parties announcing election platform | 266.77 KB | |
Media release | 223.65 KB | |
Strengthen Mental Health in Australia - Coalition Policy Announcement | 907.09 KB |