The Federal Budget has delivered several important investments in mental health and suicide prevention, including welcome commitments to workforce training, veteran mental health, youth services and community supports. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has welcomed these measures as meaningful progress, while warning that the scale of Australia's mental health crisis still demands far more ambitious and sustained reform. 

RANZCP President Dr Astha Tomar said tonight's Budget acknowledges the growing pressure facing Australians experiencing mental ill-health, but does not yet meet the scale of need confronting the community and the mental health system. 

"Tonight's Budget contains some important and genuinely welcome investments that will make a difference for patients and communities. But this cannot be the end of the conversation. It must be the beginning of the next phase of serious mental health reform." 

"We heard a great deal tonight about productivity, participation and cost-of-living pressures. Mental ill-health sits at the centre of all three. It is one of the leading drivers of workforce disengagement, financial hardship, housing instability and pressure on emergency departments and hospitals. When people cannot afford or access timely mental health care, they deteriorate until they reach crisis point and by then the human and economic costs are far greater for everyone." 

Mental ill-health costs the Australian economy an estimated $56 billion annually. Australia also spends more than $15 billion each year on late intervention, crisis responses and high-intensity care for conditions that earlier treatment could have prevented or reduced. More than 8 million Australians receive income support, with mental ill-health accounting for around one-third of claims and annual costs approaching $80 billion, excluding broader productivity losses. 

Dr Tomar said investment in specialist mental health care and workforce capacity is fundamental to improving national productivity, reducing pressure on hospitals and supporting economic participation. 

"Investing in the training, recruitment and retention of psychiatrists and mental health professionals is not a cost to the economy. It is an investment in keeping Australians well, connected to work, engaged in education, and out of crisis care. We urgently need a mental health system that is accessible earlier, closer to home, and capable of supporting people with both common and complex mental illnesses, regardless of where they live or their financial circumstances." 

Dr Tomar said the Budget contains several important measures that will support Australians experiencing mental ill-health, but much of the funding announced tonight represents continuation funding rather than the long-term structural reform the sector has consistently called for. 

"Much of this funding keeps essential services operating for another year or two. That is welcome and necessary, but continuation funding is not the same as long-term reform," she said. 

The RANZCP welcomed the following Budget measures: 

• $283.2 million over four years from 2025-26 to continue strengthening Australia's mental health and suicide prevention system
• $583.4 million to implement recommendations from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, alongside $169.7 million for allied health services for veterans
• Extension of current Specialist Training Program grant agreements with specialist medical colleges by one year from February 2027
• Commissioning of two First Nations youth mental health services in remote locations through the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
• $18.9 million to continue the 13YARN national crisis support line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• $99.5 million over five years from 2026-27 to support parents, carers and kin assisting children with developmental concerns or autism through Mental Health in Primary Schools and the Positive Partnerships Program
• $42.9 million in mental health supports for the Jewish community and the broader Bondi community, including an interim Medicare Mental Health Centre providing free walk-in support
• $3.1 million over four years from 2025-26 to continue child and youth mental health support for students in Years 7 to 9 in public secondary schools
• $8.2 million over three years from 2025-26 to extend the Small Business Debt Helpline and New Access for Small Business Owners mental health coaching program
• $4.4 million in 2026-27 to extend supports for people with eating disorders and their families

"These measures will provide meaningful support to many Australians, particularly communities that have historically struggled to access specialist mental health care. But we must be honest about the scale of what still remains unmet. Across Australia, people with severe and persistent mental illness continue to fall through gaps between Commonwealth, state and territory systems every single day." 

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler acknowledged at the RANZCP's annual Congress last week that approximately 230,000 Australians living with severe mental illness currently receive no support through either the NDIS or psychosocial support programs. 

"These are not abstract numbers to psychiatrists. These are people we see repeatedly in emergency departments, inpatient units and community services, cycling through crisis because the supports around them simply do not exist. The mental health system cannot continue relying on emergency departments and hospitals to compensate for underinvestment in community-based care and early intervention." 

Dr Tomar said the RANZCP is also closely watching the broader reform agenda around disability and foundational supports. 

"As Government reforms the NDIS, it must ensure people living with psychosocial disability are not pushed from one overstretched system into another. Savings within disability systems must be matched by real investment in foundational psychosocial supports, community mental health care and specialist clinical services." 

The RANZCP also welcomed investment in public hospitals and the Government's commitment to seek further advice on specialist affordability and access. 

"Affordability reforms must include psychiatry. Across Australia, out-of-pocket costs, workforce shortages and long waiting times are locking too many people out of specialist mental health care." 

"Australians deserve a mental health system that is genuinely fit for purpose, one that intervenes earlier, responds faster, supports people for longer, and leaves nobody behind. The challenges facing mental health are now too significant for piecemeal responses. Australia needs coordinated, sustained reform, and the RANZCP is committed to being part of that solution,” Dr Tomar said. 

The RANZCP will continue working constructively with the Australian Government to support implementation of the measures announced tonight and to help shape the next phase of national mental health reform. 

For media inquiries, please contact: Dishi Gahlowt on +61 437 315 911 or email media@ranzcp.org  

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists is a membership organisation that prepares medical specialists in the field of psychiatry, supports and enhances clinical practice, advocates for people affected by mental illness and advises governments and other groups on mental health care. For information about our work, our members or our history, visit www.ranzcp.org. 

In Australia: If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au or the Suicide Callback Service on 1300 659 467 or www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au. 

In New Zealand: If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline NZ on 0800 543 354 or www.lifeline.org.nz or the Suicide Crisis Helpline on 0508 828 865 or www.lifeline.org.nz/suicide-prevention.