2020 Federal Budget Summary

2020 Federal Budget Summary

As has been widely reported, tonight’s 2020 Federal Budget is extremely important, occurring at a time of international and national financial instability, driven by the global coronavirus pandemic. A pandemic that has highlighted gaps in our existing mental health infrastructure and provided the impetus for innovation in service delivery, which we will want to build on into the future.

It is in this context Mental Health Australia welcomes the investment in tonight’s Federal Government 2020 Budget through mental health-specific measures and further investments across the social determinants of mental health. These are important investments at a time when the nation’s resilience is being sorely tested and the impact on mental health and therefore mental health services is profound.

In this most unusual year with Budget being brought down in October means many of the initiatives accounted for in the Budget papers have already been announced. What follows is a short summary of the key measures arising from tonight’s budget, which will affect the lives of people with lived experience, carers, and the mental health sector more broadly. More detailed analysis of the budget papers will follow in the coming week.

A list of key budget initiatives for Mental Health Australia members and stakeholder is outlined in our report below.