Submissions

Both here in Australia and internationally, there is a large and rapidly growing body of evidence which demonstrates a strong positive impact of the arts on both mental and physical health, and consequently wellbeing as a whole. Given Australia’s ballooning mental health crisis, we believe that a key opportunity exists to boldly articulate the value of the Arts Sector in creating a Wellbeing Economy to the wider community and position it at the leading edge of cross-sectoral reform and partnerships.

QAMH welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training (the Committee) as part of its Inquiry into the Perceptions and Status of Vocational Education and Training. Our response to this submission explores the challenges and pose some potential solutions in order to attract more students and grow the pipeline into our sector.

The Department of Social Services is updating and replacing the Disability Services Act 1986. This Act has been in place for more than 30 years and has not been significantly updated during this time despite the many changes occurring in Australia’s disability landscape. QAMH believes this review will be an important step in ensuring the Act continues to provide strong protections for Queenslanders with disability.

QAMH has welcomed the Treasurer’s announcement that the government will develop a national framework for measuring progress and wellbeing that goes beyond traditional macroeconomic indicators. This aligns with our strong belief that the nation’s social and economic pursuits should be centred around activities which enhance Australians’ wellbeing and allow them to live a good life.

In this Pre-Budget submission to the Federal Government, QAMH have listed a number of priorities including Increasing investment in the non-governmental community mental health and wellbeing sector to bridge the service gaps and ensure Primary Health Network contracts are consistently five years in length and include indexation which accurately reflects the increased costs of business. Take a look at all the QAMH priorities presented in this submission.

QAMH welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Education, Employment and Training Committee as part of its inquiry into the delivery of VET in regional, rural and remote Queensland. Our response to this submission explores the challenges and pose some potential solutions on the delivery of the Certificate IV in Mental Health and the Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work.