As the Acting CEO of TACSI, I’m pleased to see the continuing commitment by the government in this week’s federal budget to address the challenges affecting Australians through the cost of living crisis, a housing crisis and an epidemic of violence against women.
The collective impact on vulnerable Australians is reaching a tipping point. These challenges are occurring against a backdrop of persistent disadvantage, growing income inequality with 1 in 8 people living below the poverty line, and the ongoing effects of climate change with 70% of all Australians living in an area affected by natural disasters.
The government has walked the difficult tightrope of balancing inflation and addressing the challenges of ‘all Australians’; time will tell if they can pull off the balancing act.
However, in the work TACSI contributes to, we see a range of systemic challenges in how funding is utilised across policies, services and programs combined with the underinvestment in the conditions required for collaboration. ‘How’ we make each dollar count is critical right now – but in the case of failing systems, the thirst for funding can never be quenched.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said, “I need to balance a soft landing and keeping eyes of the horizon because we have generational responsibilities” – and he’s absolutely right. It’s never been more important for the government to be future-focused. We feel passionately that Australia would benefit from a coordinated approach where states and territories, the wider systems and our communities simultaneously address the real needs of Australians now, and so that together, we can take pragmatic steps to build a bridge towards a better future. Without this, we will continue to remain stuck in cycles of reform that tinker at the edges.
We are in support of a whole-of-government wellbeing budget that continues to take steps towards aligning our economic and social goals, to connect up and actively move Australia toward measurable systems change.
In that, we recognise that one issue or group experiencing a challenge doesn’t stand isolated, and while TACSI support our client and partners (including government) to focus on specific issues needing urgent and ongoing reform, we are centrally focussed on the intersectional, intergenerational and systemic responses in how we must imagine potential new visions of the future and new systems to support all Australians to thrive.
Our four visions for a more equitable and regenerative future
Vision #1
We believe everyone should have a ‘home’ that supports them to thrive.
The Budget response
The government has announced a multi-billion package for new housing initiatives, and housing supports, across homeless, social and affordable housing, including:
$1 billion of crisis and transitional accommodation to support women and children escaping violence, as well as youth;
$9.3 billion over five years for a national agreement on social housing and homelessness (including doubling federal homelessness funding to $400 million every year to be matched by the states and territories).
A $1 billion budget line item to deliver more housing sooner will include money for states and territories to build community infrastructure to meet new supply.
A modest Commonwealth Rent Assistance increase builds on last year’s rise, giving a single person an extra $9.40 a week if they’re receiving the maximum rate.
The opportunity
We welcome this news to comprehensively address the challenges from multiple angles, working across the layers of government and across Australia.
What we’d like to see
We urge the government to lead a dialogue that resets the agenda to re-imagine how we want to live in Australia, in the second quarter of the 21st century, and accelerate work to progress a housing system that sees housing stock as social infrastructure not as financial infrastructure.
We think Australia would benefit from a system that ensures that all people experience the critical functions of home ‘agency, identity and connection’, in communities that are in relationship to our natural environment and enable us to meaningfully connect in place.
→ Read more about our views on the future of home in Australia here.
Vision #2
We believe in holistic approaches that nurture resilient communities, who can lead local change and adaptation in the face of ongoing climate disasters.
The Budget response
The government has announced further support for disaster preparedness and resilience alongside the existing $1 billion Disaster Ready Fund and the Future Drought Fund, including:
Round two of the Disaster Ready Fund will deliver $200 million in funding for disaster risk reduction and resilience initiatives, with funding matched by state, territory, local governments, and other applicants.
$519m over eight years from the Future Drought Fund to climate and drought-related programs, including $132m to continue the drought resilience adoption and innovation hubs,
$188.2m over 4 years for ongoing support of the National Emergency Management Agency’s (NEMA’s) operation
The barrier
We’ve experienced first hand the potential of communities; their capability to think generationally and establish ambitious goals for their future. Sadly, the reality is that most communities need to invest their energy into meeting their current needs, rather than focusing on the future. We believe there remains a gap in government commitment and investment for longer term transformation and adaptation by Australian communities.
What we’d like to see
The government would benefit from continuing to invest in building place-based capabilities in communities and that should include: strengthening resilience now, deepening social capital, building respect for Country and creating genuine opportunities for communities to lead transformation for the future.
→ Read more about the opportunities that lie within communities themselves
Vision #3
We believe in activating the power of people to strengthen our systems of care.
The Budget response
The government has made announcements to support informal and formal systems of care in disability, aged care, health care, mental health and in the family and child system, including:
$1.1bn over four years to pay superannuation on government-funded paid parental leave from July 2025,
$320 weekly payments for student teachers, midwives, and social workers during mandatory work placements.
Payments of up to $5,000 to help women leaving domestic violence situations and access to other support services at a cost of $756.4m over five years.
$56m for several women’s health initiatives, including contraception and menopause training for GP’s.
The National Mental Health Commission, and the The National Suicide Prevention Office will be folded into the Department of Health. With $888m for a new digital mental health initiative for ‘low intensity’ issues over 8 years.
With $14.4B in projected savings for the NDIS, there is $130m for the next two years to respond to the NDIS reviews recommendations.
A new national peer workforce association will help mobilise, professionalise and unlock the potential of this important workforce.
$71.7m for Primary Health Networks, funded to commission wraparound mental health care and coordination in between GP and specialist appointments.
The barrier
Our systems of care are in crisis, we remain stuck in cycles of fail>reform>repeat. Relational aspects of care are undervalued, people often feel done to, go unheard and are structurally excluded.
What we’d like to see
We urge the government to invest in rigorously reimagining our systems of care. In doing this we believe mutual support (or peer-to-peer) is a central lever for change and is fundamental to our wellbeing.
→ Read more about the opportunities for peer-to-peer support to change lives of all Australians
Vision #4
We believe First Nations ways of knowing and being should be actively embedded in all of Australia’s affairs.
The Budget response
The government has given an indication of First Nations policy priorities following the Indigenous Voice referendum last year, including those contained within February’s Closing the Gap document, with jobs and housing being the major focus, including:
$774m dollars over the next five years for the new Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program, aimed at creating 3,000 jobs over the next three years.
$188.7 million dollars of that overall funding will be spent on creating a Community Jobs and Business Fund over the next four years.
The Attorney-General's department will spend $11.7 million over the next two years to extend the pilot of a culturally safe family dispute resolution program.
$20 million dollars that was previously set aside to create local and regional Indigenous Voice bodies will be repurposed in the portfolio.
Funding for a proposed Makarrata Commission, for the oversight of truth-telling and treaty-making processes, has been reallocated to Closing the Gap measures.
And of the $4bn set aside for the joint federal and Northern Territory remote housing program the government broke down how this will be spent.
The opportunity
Following the referendum, ongoing support for reconciliation and addressing systemic racism remain important. Funding must get to the heart of systemic racism across Australia and continue to progress measurable change in the lives of First Nations Peoples.
What we’d like to see
We urge the government to listen deeply to First Nations Peoples, and to take on the work of allyship in deep listening and deep partnering. Foregrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowing and being must extend beyond the First Nations portfolio and be embedded in how we engage across Australia’s affairs.
We believe there remains a need to invest in action that supports all Australian’s to reckon with the effects of colonialism and for us all to collectively act in allyship to dismantle systems of oppression.
→ Read more about how we support allyship and foreground First Nations wisdom in our work