President’s Update - Budget 2025-26: 'A missed opportunity'

Budget 2025-26: A missed opportunity 

Budget Day is always a big day on the political calendar - especially when a government is unveiling the policies and costings it’s taking to the upcoming election. 

The budget handed down by South Australian Treasurer Stephen Mullighan on Thursday 5 June was a missed opportunity for new and innovative measures to build the sustainable health workforce this state needs. 

The 2025-26 Budget contained $1.9 billion in healthcare funding, including $1.7 billion allocated to ‘additional hospital activity.’ There were investments in mental health, including $13.9 million to expand the Mental Health Co-Responder Program which pairs mental health clinicians with police officers responding to mental health Triple Zero call outs.

I welcome this level of funding – and the acknowledgement that hospitals and mental healthcare need attention. But I remain concerned that without operational alignment, system capacity, and workforce support, this investment could become part of a cycle of promise without progress. Budget announcements alone do no equal health outcomes.  

In recent years, South Australia has experienced a disconnection between funding, policy, and results. Despite record investment in healthcare under the Malinauskas Government, ambulance ramping hours and elective surgery waiting times have ballooned. It is not clear how this budget will fix these problems. 

It can’t be a “business as usual” approach. Investment must be backed by implementable policies that ensure we have a connected, well-resourced health system with enough doctors, nurses and allied health professionals working in areas of need.

AMA SA stands ready to work with the South Australian Government, and all partners and stakeholders, to ensure that taxpayer investment translates into improved patient care. 

South Australians need a health system that performs, not just one that is promised and fails to deliver.

#CrazySocks4Docs Day

It was great to see so many colleagues and community members getting behind #CrazySocks4Docs Day on Friday 6 June – including the South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton.

Across Australia, we’ve seen real progress in breaking down the stigma around mental health. But there’s still considerable work to do in this space, the evidence remains sobering. Recent Australian research shows that healthcare professionals are at 30% increased risk of suicide compared to other occupations (Maheen et al., 2023). Younger and female doctors, remain at elevated risk, with suicide rates among female medical practitioners more than doubling over the last two decades. 

Many of these deaths were preventable, and in far too many cases, help was not sought early enough. We spend our careers caring for patients, but sometime at a cost to our wellbeing. 

CrazySocks4Docs Day is more than a day of colourful socks – it is a day to remind us of all that we’re human.

The environments we work in are inherently high stress. Long hours, moral injury, complex systems, and the internalisation of perfectionism contribute to burnout, depression, and feelings of isolation. But stress must not be a silent killer. Caring for our patients must not come at the cost of our own wellbeing – or that of our colleagues.

This includes being present for each other, especially our junior doctors who are often the most vulnerable. Creating safe spaces for conversation, being mindful of unspoken struggles, and checking in with a colleague can be life changing. Services like Doctors' Health SA and DRS4DRS offer confidential, peer-informed support and are vital lifelines.

At a broader level, the AMA fully supports the ‘Every Doctor, Every Setting Action Plan’, which calls for the mental health and wellbeing of the medical profession to be a national priority. 

Seeking help is strength, not weakness. Let's continue to advocate for positive workplaces, inclusive cultures, and leadership that values psychosocial safety. 

Our strength as a profession lies not only in clinical excellence, but in our humanity.

King’s Birthday Honours 

Finally, I’d like to congratulate these South Australian doctors recognised in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours list:

• Dr Peter Rischbieth has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to rural health.

• Dr Carolyn Lawlor-Smith has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to medicine and to community health 

• Dr Lawrie Palmer has been awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service in palliative medicine.

• Dr Paul Dignam has been awarded the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service in SA Health as a consultant psychiatrist.

These colleagues exemplify the very best of our profession – compassionate, committed, and dedicated to patient care. All of them have played crucial roles in advancing the health and wellbeing of our community. 

On behalf of the AMA family, I thank them for their service to our community.