Malcolm Baalman and Terry Slevin
The dust is settling quickly on the dramatic outcome of the 2025 federal election. The Albanese Labor Government is returned for a further three-year term, with a much increased majority of around 90 of the 150 seats in the House or Representatives.
In the 76-seat Senate, Labor will have at least 28 seats and possibly 29 or 30, while the Greens will have 11. That will give those two parties the necessary minimum 39 votes to pass votes, and 38 votes to block opposition motions, in the upper chamber.
There will be 27 opposition senators, and a mixed group of 8 crossbench senators, but the latter will not have the votes to exercise a ‘balance of power’. The result is that the degree of Labor-Greens cooperation will control every outcome in the Senate.
Throughout the election campaign PHAA was one of several voices advocating for specific policy outcomes – both publicly and behind the scenes. As well as talking to media about the issues we were concerned about, we asked each of the parties to respond to a questionnaire related to our asks and published a scorecard so the public health community were clear on each of the major parties positions on key topics.
We also highlighted the failure of both major parties to focus on public health and prevention as a key election issue, which means our job is far from done.
For the PHAA’s seven key themes, the outcomes in terms of policy commitments are mixed.
Creating the Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) – One clear and very important outcome of the election is that work to establish Australia’s Centre for Disease Control will continue. The CDC was a Labor commitment made at the last Federal election, and was also supported by the Greens. Work to establish it is already underway. We should now expect the legislation to create the full statutory body by the end of 2025. The degree of funding and mission remains to be determined. We will continue to insist that it have a mission to tackle non-communicable chronic diseases, which the Government has yet to commit to.
Action on obesity – Despite the existence of clear directions in the National Preventive Health Strategy (2021) and the National Obesity Strategy (2022), there were no new initiatives in relation to this issue promised by the Labor Party during the campaign. The public health community will need to maintain vigorous advocacy to get outcomes in this area.
Investment in prevention – Again, despite the existence of clear directions in the National Preventive Health Strategy, there were no new commitments to investment in prevention from the Labor Party during the campaign. The target that 5% of health expenditure should go towards preventive measures is far from being met. The newly elected Western Australian Government has made that commitment itself, and has appointed a new Minister for Preventive Health. We wait to see if the new Albanese Ministry has the same commitment.
Action on climate change and its health impacts – The Labor Party made no new commitments to go further on containing climate emissions on top of what it did in its first term. Stronger action is clearly needed. There are no specific new election promises on addressing health impacts, other than a general sense that the new CDC will be able to independently advise. More to do here, also.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health – There are no new election promises from Labor, but in recent Budgets the Government has been increasing funding for Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisations, and targeted some relevant specific health conditions. Pressure should be maintained to keep expanding preventive care to close the gaps. There is also no clarity on what the new government might do on wider reconciliation and issues based on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Universal oral health – The re-elected government made no new commitments to expand either preventive or treatment dental services, through Medicare or otherwise. This was, however, a prominent policy demand of the Greens, under their ‘Dental Into Medicare’ banner, so expect them to use their Senate leverage to try to make Labor act in this space. A program here would be in line with historic Labor policies on health. No immediate action is likely, but the debate is unlikely to go away.
Gambling reform – the Government (and the Prime Minister) made no specific election promises to act on the 31 recommendations of the 2023 parliamentary ‘Murphy Report’ into online gambling reform, but every Labor candidate would have heard the importance of this issue from constituents during the campaign, and many candidates commented unofficially that “something must be done”. Continuing pressure from the advocates for reform – including the public health community – is necessary.
Outside of our seven themes, we were very concerned that at the very last minute the Coalition revealed they were willing to dismantle Australia’s 2024 whole-of-nation approach to preventing uptake of vaping. Young Australians and their families in particular should be very relieved that this policy will now go nowhere. The re-elected Government was very clear about defending the current policy regime, as were state and territory governments.
Vaping regulatory control should now have a clear three years to settle into place. The early results in terms of sharply reduced youth vaping are very promising. Stronger investment in information campaigns to reach young people will remain a priority. Meanwhile, we should give credit where it is due. The first Albanese government took significant and decisive action on tobacco and vaping. As a result, we will continue to defend and support those reforms.
During this election campaign, the public health community showed a strong willingness to engage in advocacy, including through engaging with elections, parties and candidates. PHAA will remain a vigorous force representing that community at Parliament and to government ministers. There will be some good outcomes in the coming term of Parliament, but there is much still to fight for to improve the health of all Australians.
And while we continue that fight, we will adopt a constructive approach with the key players. We will work closely with departments, government officers, new and returning Ministers, their staff, and new and returning Members of Parliament so as to effectively influence public policy and investment to advance the health of all people in Australia.
Malcom Baalman is the PHAA’s Policy & Advocacy Manager, and Terry Slevin is its Chief Executive Officer.
Photo: Counting ballots after an Australian election. Credit: AEC Images/Flickr.
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