‘We can’t afford not to act’: experts on their hopes for mental health in Australia's budget | Ian Hickie, Hazel Dalton, Tegan Carrison, Tamara Cavenett

Australia needs to start flattening the mental health curve urgently. The coming budget is an opportunity for actionThe 2021 federal budget has been heralded as the point at which the Morrison government will respond, at scale, to the many failings of the mental health system. We spend only $10.6bn a year providing mental health services to over 4 million people. Importantly, there is an increasing divide between the federal government’s reporting and the independent accounting of what mon