Chapter 2Key Issues

2.1The committee did not hold public hearings but received 31 written questions on notice.

2.2This chapter provides an overview of some key issues raised in written questions on notice received by the committee during the 2025–26 budget estimates period.

Health and Aged Care portfolio

2.3Topics raised with the Department of Health and Aged Care included:

commitments to fund farming and rural mental health services, with particular reference to Rural Aid;

funding of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations;

the Indigenous Australians Health Programme and funding to non-Indigenous providers;

transition and structural reform following the review of First Nations mental health and suicide prevention services and the integrated team care program; and

data sovereignty and community-controlled data governance.

Social Services portfolio

2.4Topics raised with the Department of Social Services included:

changes made to the Targeted Compliance Framework, including mutual obligations;

investigations undertaken into the connection between a JobSeeker’s payment cancellation and their death;

the number of Disability Employment Services consulted about the new Inclusive Employment Australia program;

the adequacy of various social security payments in line with current cost-of-living pressures; and

the status of the National Housing and Homelessness Plan.

Social Services portfolio agencies

Services Australia

2.5Topics raised with Services Australia included:

changes made to Services Australia’s guidelines and policies concerning compliance assessments for people with mutual obligations failures who could enter the penalty zone;

payment suspensions for mutual obligations failures;

the number of times Services Australia’s systems flagged a connection between a mutual obligations decision or payment refusal with death or suicide; and

Services Australia’s policies concerning the welfare of individuals it is engaging via debt collection interventions, payment suspension or cancellations.

Senator Marielle Smith

Chair