Federal Election 2025
As Catholics, human dignity, social justice and the common good are central to our advocacy, especially during elections.
Your care is our mission
As Catholics, human dignity, social justice and the common good are central to our advocacy, especially during elections.
This includes prioritising policies that promote affordable and accessible healthcare for all, including robust financial funding for palliative care, and a sustainable health and aged care sector that is both fair, equitable and leaves no one behind.
Our focus areas reflect always, our commitment to uphold the life and inherent dignity of every person. Policies that support the health and wellbeing of individuals and families particularly in times of illness, and ensure compassionate end-of-life care are all important initiatives.
This includes social determinants of health and wellbeing. Our policy priorities consider the impact of homelessness, the environment, and the experiences of the most vulnerable Australians. These realities are deeply intertwined with health, aged care and wellbeing outcomes. Our choices at the ballot box should resonate with our call to build a society that cherishes every individual, especially the most vulnerable among us.
This election campaign is a chance to outline real reform in health and aged care which focuses on improved outcomes for those in need – the sick, the elderly and the vulnerable. We advocate for this through ensuring private hospitals remain viable, public hospitals attract appropriate investment, aged care residents receive quality and sustainable care, and regional communities are not left behind.
Jason Kara
CEO of Catholic Health Australia
CHA Advocacy
The aged care sector is facing key challenges that require urgent reform. Workforce shortages must be addressed through workforce planning, key worker housing initiatives, and rental subsidies to attract and retain healthcare professionals. Rural and remote areas need more support to ensure older people can access high quality and safe care, no matter where they live.
Laura Haylen
Director Aged Care Policy
Private hospitals are at a crossroads. Rising costs and stagnant funding threaten their future. Without bold reform, we risk not only the decline of private healthcare but also the stagnation of innovation. The path forward demands courage, vision, and unwavering commitment to both sustainability and advancement. The healthcare sector faces critical challenges, including private hospital viability, impacted by cost inflation, waiting lists, administrative burdens, and pricing regulations.
Dr Katharine Bassett
Director Health Policy
Care with Compassion
Inadequate funding is overcrowding emergency departments, causing longer elective surgery wait times, and straining resources. Many public hospitals are suffering from outdated infrastructure and insufficient capital funding, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In aged care, the new Support at Home Program presents an enormous opportunity to support older Australians in a sustainable way, but there are real risks to the Program’s implementation that need to be addressed.
Alex Lynch
Director of Public Health and In Home Support Policy
We are driven by a clear mission focused on the common good. This includes enhanced palliative care access and funding particularly in rural and regional Australia, homelessness support and more social and affordable housing; closing the gap on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes and developing climate resilience in our hospitals and aged care facilities through targeted funding and decarbonisation programs.
Brigid Meney
Director of Strategy & Mission
Throughout the election we’ll make sure our members and key stakeholders across our ministries, government and health and aged care sectors are kept up to date with CHA’s policy positions. You can access our election related media releases, Position Papers and social media tiles as we update our channels throughout the campaign.
Adrian Kerr
Director Communications, Media & Governance
CHA Asks...
CHA is calling on the elected government to commit to delivering the following key priorities.
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Key Issues
Private Hospitals:
- The Commonwealth Government must ensure the viability of the private hospital sector, including our not-for profit hospitals, who deserve fairer funding from private health insurers
- We must enhance the future of private maternity and mental health services by reviewing the design of insurance products to ensure they are fit for purpose
Public Hospitals:
- The Commonwealth Government should develop and commit to measurable and targeted improvements in primary care services for our public hospitals
- Inadequate funding is overcrowding emergency departments, causing longer elective surgery wait times and straining resources
Aged Care:
- The Commonwealth Government should explore alternatives to the MMM Classification in rural and remote areas to address the challenges and the cost of delivering services to older Australians in specific geographical locations
- The transition timeline for the Support at Home Program is very challenging, and it is important the Commonwealth provides alternative transition options for older Australians and aged care providers who are not ready to go live on 1 July 2025
- The Commonwealth Government needs to address rental subsidies for aged care nurses so they can live closer to their work. This can be done through rental deductions from salary packaging caps for properties close to employment
Mission:
- Properly funded palliative care, particularly in rural and regional Australia, is essential to quality, end-of-life care
- The release of the National Housing and Homelessness Plan, with a commitment to periodic reviews and time bound targets, along with more social and affordable housing, will help bring people back from the margins
Aged Care
CHA members provide approximately 12 per cent of all aged care facilities across Australia, in addition to around 20 per cent of home care services. 25 per cent of our members provide services in regional, rural and remote parts of the country.
Health
Our members operate 80 hospitals in each Australian state and the ACT, providing around 30 per cent of private hospital care and 5 per cent of public hospital care. This includes 63 not-for-profit hospitals operated by CHA members - Cabrini, Calvary, Mater, Mercy Health, OzCare, St John of God Health Care, St Vincent's Health Australia, St Vincent’s Lismore and UnitingCare Qld Hospitals.
Mission
We advocate for compassionate health, aged and community care in Australia, supporting our members to continue the healing mission of Jesus. We are inspired by the ministry of Jesus and the work of our Catholic ministries to bring healing, justice, comfort and hope for all, especially the vulnerable, disadvantaged, neglected and stigmatised in society.