A year of advocacy, action and hope

As I’ve reflected on earlier this year, one of my favourite moments of 2025 was being in a packed room at our Member Policy Forum at Old Parliament House, facilitating members’ direct engagement with a newly re-elected government. The energy was incredible – a great example of the power of collaboration and the shared commitment across our sector to make mental health a national priority.

It’s moments like these that remind us that together we can achieve change, despite the many challenges we still face.

It continues to be an honour to work alongside you all as we advocate for policies that improve mental health. We can’t do this work without our members, so I want to thank you all for your continued dedication and support.

Looking back, 2025 has been a period of significant activity and achievement for Mental Health Australia.

Policy and advocacy remained at the heart of our work, with a strong focus on influencing the 2025 Federal Election. We were encouraged to see both major parties commit $1 billion to mental health in their election platforms.

Our election strategy included the development and release of:

• A vision statement that set out the high-level mental health investments and actions needed over the next term of government.
• A sector sustainability statement that provided government with seven low and no-cost initiatives to improve the funding       of the sector.
• A case for change for free mental health supports for all children and young people.
• MHA-commissioned polling which revealed that 81% of voters are concerned about mental health, with 75% calling for greater government action.  

Beyond the election, we:  

• developed five major policy submissions and four incoming parliamentary briefs
• advocated for systemic reform through our Pre-Budget Submission
• established a Mental Health Workforce Sector Advisory Group and Network
• and influenced interjurisdictional meetings of Health and Mental Health Ministers,  including facilitating a lived experience and sector stakeholder forum with these Ministers.

Through the Embrace Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia, which is a free, national online resource, we have supported mental health and suicide prevention services to evaluate and enhance their cultural responsiveness to better meet the needs of multicultural communities.

Our World Mental Health Month campaign – Connect with your community – in October helped to unite the sector and highlight the benefits of connection and community for our mental health. And our events, including the largest-ever Member Policy Forums in Canberra and Melbourne, strengthened our engagement with members.

In June this year we also saw the conclusion of long-standing lived experience arrangements, the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum and the National Register of Consumer and Carer Representatives. I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of both groups, whose legacies continue to shape national policy directions. National lived experience advocacy is now being led through our colleagues at the National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, Mental Health Carers Australia and the Indigenous Australian Lived Experience Centre.

As we look ahead, Mental Health Australia remains committed to working with you to drive bold reform and build a mentally healthy future for all. Together, we are making progress towards a mental health system that is more responsive, inclusive and effective.

This will be our last newsletter for 2025 – we’ll be back in your inboxes at the end of January. I wish you a happy festive season and a restful break and look forward to working with you in the new year.  

Carolyn Nikoloski, CEO

Mental Health Australia