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Background
In 2024, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to identify the highest priority reform areas under five pillars of productivity, with the goal of delivering practical and implementable policy ideas across the five pillars by the end of 2025:
- Creating a more dynamic and resilient economy
- Building a skilled and adaptable workforce
- Harnessing data and digital technology
- Delivering quality care more efficiently
- Investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.
This submission is focused on gathering feedback on the Australian Government’s proposed approach to Pillar 4: Delivering quality care more efficiently. With growing demand and rising costs across services like health, aged care, disability, and early childhood education, the government is seeking to improve the quality of care while easing pressure on budgets and the workforce.
The government has identified three key policy reform areas for further exploration:
- Reform of quality and safety regulation to support a more cohesive care economy
- Embed collaborative commissioning to increase the integration of care services
- A national framework to support government investment in prevention
As Australia’s largest non-government network of health, community, and aged care services, Catholic Health Australia (CHA) and its members play a leading role in the care economy. With deep experience across the sector, CHA is well positioned to meaningfully contribute to the current policy reform agenda. This submission reinforces the case for a cohesive, system-wide response—one that delivers care more efficiently and, most importantly, returns more time to care.
