The Australian Medical Association is calling for the health budget to be protected from further cuts.

They believe the very small increase outlined in the recent budget would not be enough to protect services, given rising health industry costs.

They pointed to a lack of action on the revenue side of the budget saying:

So far, we have yet to see any federal and state politicians brave enough to engage in a conversation about the revenue required to deliver what Tasmanians expect.

Read their full statement below.

Media release – Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel, President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Tasmania, 12 June 2025

Parties Need to Address Revenue in Election

AMA Tasmania calls on all political parties and independents to rule out cuts to the Tasmanian Health Service.

Despite record health expenditure, it is not enough! With a state election now underway, this must be a key issue addressed by all candidates. All politicians must be clear on how they will address the crises in health should they be elected to a new parliament.

Rather than setting a realistic budget for next year, the budget papers indicate that the Rockliff Government believes a less than 1 per cent increase (0.9%) in the total health budget for 2025/26 and a 0.2% increase for hospital services will be sufficient.

This scenario foretells either another budget blowout or cuts to vital health services.

It is impossible to comment on those parties who have not released a budget and have not been subject to scrutiny and accountability.

The Federal Government is also responsible for failing to address funding shortfalls in public hospitals. Tasmania needs to see urgent action to ensure the National Health Reform Agreement delivers the funding we need to stop the hospital logjam and fund our public hospitals to meet demand.

As it is, elective surgery continues to be cancelled because of lack of beds in our major hospitals; patients continue to be bed blocked in emergency departments; children still struggle to see a paediatrician for their developmental and learning needs; pathology and radiology tests remain unseen with a backlog that is seeing patient care harmed; and there is no real plan to ensure we have the major hospital infrastructure we need for the decades to come.

If there needs to be ongoing public in private outscoring of public patients, this needs to be strategic and ensure that the complex patients are not disadvantaged and wait the longest to be seen and treated.

We recognise that the government coffers are limited. Therefore, a key question in this election is, what will the major parties do to increase funding to health?

We need reforms to revenue to ensure proper funding for health services and other essential government services that also go to the health and wellbeing of the community: housing, education, social services, community activities – cultural and sporting and the list goes on.

We need to see a concrete plan, rather than words and false hope, to improve the budget. That means we need revenue measures to be addressed as much as expenditure.

Politicians are good at telling us how they will spend money, but not how they will collect more of it to fund essential services.

So far, we have yet to see any federal and state politicians brave enough to engage in a conversation about the revenue required to deliver what Tasmanians expect.

The AMA has campaigned for a sugar tax and volumetric alcohol tax as both measures have the benefit of raising revenue while also influencing people’s behaviour to lessen consumption of these harmful food products that lead to worse health outcomes. But these alone are not going to find the additional $1 billion dollars a year that Tasmania needs, ongoing and indexed going forward.

With net debt blowing out, it is time the Tasmanian and Australian Governments made some brave decisions around taxation and spending to ensure that our health system is fit for purpose and can meet the demands. If we want world-class health care in our hospitals in Tasmania, we need to be prepared to pay for it.

We all have a responsibility to be engaged and having the conversation: What are we going to do about this?

 

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