• 26th Mar 2025

Media release: The 2025 Federal Budget won’t deliver on promised healthcare reform

Since coming to power in 2022, the Federal Government has prioritised health system reform as a central platform of its policy agenda and has repeatedly espoused the need for the adoption of innovative new models of multidisciplinary team-based healthcare, inclusive of paramedics, to overcome health workforce shortages and alleviate the pressure on hospitals, emergency departments and ambulance services.

While the Australasian College of Paramedicine (the College) acknowledges the Federal Government’s budgetary support for more affordable and accessible primary healthcare and the expansion of the Workforce Incentive Program for general practitioners and nurses, these measures alone, particularly without commensurate support for paramedics and other allied health workforces, will not address the systemic challenges facing Australia’s health sector.

This was reiterated in the government’s 2022 Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report and its subsequent pledge to fund, via the Strengthening Medicare Fund, reforms to support workforces, including paramedics, to work at “top of scope” and provide flexible funding for multidisciplinary team-based models to improve quality of care. And again, at length, in the government’s 2024 Independent Review "Unleashing the Potential of Our Health Workforce - Scope of Practice Review Final Report", with paramedics among the key health workforces recognised for their potential to complement and bolster healthcare access and delivery.

Regrettably, the 2025 budget has not addressed the reforms that have been repeatedly pledged, with paramedics omitted from budgetary consideration. Without support for this commitment, we risk maintaining an unsustainable status quo. Increasing the number of GPs and nurses will not be sufficient to address the workforce shortages nationally in the short term, particularly for underserved rural, regional and remote communities, nor will the addition of another 50 new Urgent Care Clinics if the government is primarily reliant on doctors and nurses - already exhausted workforces - in practice settings that are ideally suited for paramedics.

The solutions lie in implementing and funding those touted reforms, in investing in healthcare across the board and ushering in a new era of health service delivery, one that is comprehensive, holistic and comprised of a diversity of health professions. Paramedics have a vital role to play in primary, community and urgent care and are poised to help reshape the health landscape if supported by the Commonwealth. It is imperative that the momentum the profession has gained in recognition in recent years on the back of sustained College advocacy continues if Australia’s health sector is to see demonstrable change happen.

Media contact:

Jemma Altmeier, College Advocacy and Government Relations Manager; email: jemma.altmeier@paramedics.org; phone: 0409 911 681

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