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The Productivity Commission’s Interim Report into the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, released last month, has delivered a sobering verdict: the Agreement has failed to deliver systemic reform and is “not fit for purpose”. Notably, it has not improved mental health or suicide prevention outcomes, with alarming findings that the suicide rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has worsened.
Describing the system as fragmented, hard to navigate and chronically underfunded, the Commission finds that while many objectives have been achieved, they are not linked to tangible outcomes. Several key objectives remain unfulfilled, with the commission calling for the immediate release of the completed National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy and guidelines on regional planning and commissioning to support Primary Health Networks in improving access to services.
The Commission urges immediate action to address the significant shortfall in psychosocial supports for an estimated almost 500,000 Australians with unmet needs outside the NDIS. It recommends clarifying commissioning and funding responsibilities across governments, with the Commonwealth providing additional support where needed. A detailed national plan should be developed to expand these services and fully meet this need by 2030, underpinned by clear governance, defined roles and strong accountability mechanisms.
These recommendations closely reflect the priorities outlined in QAMH’s December 2024 submission on Foundational Supports. In that submission, QAMH called for a nationally agreed five-year plan to address the psychosocial support gap, extension of current funding arrangements, and co-design of future systems with people with lived and living experience. QAMH also emphasised the need for targeted, community-based supports that are culturally safe, flexible and underpinned by a sustainable workforce.
The interim report highlights ongoing fragmentation across jurisdictions, a lack of coordinated strategy with measurable outcomes, minimal Lived Experience involvement in development and governance, and growing demand that far outpaces investment – with only 3% of national mental health expenditure tied to the Agreement.
To enable genuine reform, the Commission recommends extending the current Agreement to June 2027, providing time to co-design a new policy architecture with people with lived and living experience, families, carers, supporters, service providers and practitioners. The revised Agreement should include:
- A renewed National Mental Health Strategy
- A five-year agreement with clearly defined outcomes, funding commitments, and designated roles and responsibilities
- A schedule to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, co-designed and community-led
- A suicide prevention schedule aligned with the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, overseen by the National Suicide Prevention Office
- Clarified responsibilities for psychosocial supports and a plan to address unmet need by 2030
- Formalised oversight by a reinvigorated National Mental Health Commission
The Commission also proposes several actions to strengthen system capacity. These include developing a defined scope of practice for the peer workforce across clinical and non-clinical settings; funding collaborative initiatives for service providers to share best practice; and strengthening PHNs by increasing planning capacity, standardising data and procurement processes, and expanding funding flexibility. Prevention and early intervention, particularly early engagement during distress, must also be prioritised across health and non-health portfolios.
QAMH welcomes the Commission’s findings, which strongly align with the recommendations made in our March 2025 submission to the review. These included:
- Increasing sustainable, flexible funding for community mental health and psychosocial supports
- Clarifying roles across federal, state and territory governments and integrating with NDIS reforms
- Investing in the development of the peer workforce, including training and supervision
- Improving data collection and service mapping to identify gaps and reduce duplication
- Ensuring culturally safe, community-led supports for high-risk communities, co-designed with lived experience and cultural knowledge
- Recognising families and carers in all planning and accountability mechanisms
QAMH supports the Commission’s call for the Agreement to move beyond rhetoric and deliver structural, lasting reform. At the heart of this is a system that recognises community mental health services as essential to prevention, recovery and wellbeing.
As the national conversation shifts towards reform and the final report approaches on Friday 17 October 2025, QAMH urges governments to act on the evidence, fund what works, and commit to a system that empowers people to live well in the communities, not just avoid crisis.
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