At the heart of strong communities: our not-for-profit sector

At the recent opening of a community mental health service, I listened to a mother share her experience of struggling with mental health challenges after the birth of her first child. She spoke with honesty about how overwhelming that time was and described what it meant to finally find support. This story and experience highlighted something that all of us who work in our sector knows well: when not for profits are supported to do their job well, lives change and communities are strengthened.

Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh’s recent National Press Club address, “Rebuilding trust: The future of Australia’s charities and community life,” spoke directly to this. His focus on trust, advocacy, and the role of charities in strengthening democracy was a welcome recognition of what our sector contributes every day. With fewer people involved in social, civic and political groups, Minister Leigh said the role of charities is more important than ever. He said: “Charities do more than deliver services. They create belonging. They carry memory. They build trust by giving people repeated opportunities to work alongside others.” 

Across Australia, not for profits step into the hardest spaces: mental health, homelessness, suicide prevention, family violence, among others. They help to reduce distress, save lives, and support people to participate fully in their communities. Our members are at the frontline of Australia’s mental health system. Collectively they support over three million Australians experiencing mental health challenges or suicidal distress each year, and employ or represent more than 100,00 specialist and generalist workers (source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Workforce. 2024). They also reflect the family members, carers and kin who provide support day in, day out.

But to be able to focus on the significant job at hand, we need the right foundations and support. As outlined in Mental Health Australia’s Sector Sustainability Statement, the foundations that enable our sector to have the greatest impact – things like secure funding, longer term contracts, and fair indexation – are too often missing. Short funding cycles, delays in contract renewals, and inadequate provision for rising workforce costs make it harder for services to plan, innovate, and retain staff. Ultimately, this affects the people who rely on them.

The recent landmark Fair Work SCHADS Award decision on the gender undervaluation review is a positive step toward valuing the care workforce properly. Fair Work’s minimum wage rise announced earlier this month is also a welcome move. But without matching funding, services simply cannot absorb increased wage costs. As the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health has highlighted, every dollar of wage growth must be backed by government investment to protect frontline care.

If we are serious about social cohesion, wellbeing, and rebuilding trust in our institutions, we must be serious about the sustainability of the not-for-profit sector. Funding mental health, and community services more broadly, is not a cost. It is an investment in a stronger, healthier, more connected Australia.

The solutions are within reach. Now we need to back them.