This month, Qistina Taufiq, HCC’s Cultural Diversity Engagement Officer, and Clare Mullen, Executive Director, were privileged to be invited to celebrate the WA Multicultural Awards – a program run by the WA Office of Multicultural Interests.

This is because Health Consumers’ Council was recognised as a nominee in the category of Community Service and Support – General Community Service organisation. The evening was a wonderful celebration of the diversity, capability, resourcefulness and strength of people from a wide range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds and the organisations that serve them.

HCC has had a targeted program of work aiming both to ensure people coming to Australia from other countries understand the WA health system and how to navigate it – as well as ensuring the voices of people from multicultural backgrounds are sought and listened to as decisions about health and healthcare are made – since 2011. Louise Ford joined the HCC team then and pioneered a program of workshops on Health Rights and Responsibilities for CaLD communities.

The program was expanded in 2015 to include HCC’s popular workshop on Supporting Cultural Diversity in Healthcare. This workshop is aimed at health service providers who want to develop their capability in ensuring health services are inclusive of people from all cultures. HCC is funded to run this workshop twice a year – and we also deliver it on a fee for service basis to a number of healthcare organisations.

In 2025, HCC will be finishing a project we’ve been working on with Cancer Council WA and the WA Department of Health to produce a range of information leaflets about cancer treatment for people from CaLD backgrounds. HCC’s role has been to support a consumer advisory group made up of people from a range of communities and cultures to inform the development and production of these resources.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of these important Awards.

By Clare Mullen, Executive Director

Today – 17 March 2025 – the Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler – is speaking to a range of media outlets about his announcement that, if re-elected, a Federal Labor Government will be publishing the costs of specialist medical fees on the Government’s Medical Costs Finder website.

But wait – isn’t that the website that was set up in 2019 to do exactly that? Well, yes. But it wasn’t mandatory for doctors to add their information. And so only 70 of them did. Out of approximately 11,000 specialists in Australia.

As I highlighted in this blog article last May, it’s important that consumers – in this case patients – have access to cost information in order to make their decision about where to get specialist treatment.

Health Consumers’ Council WA represents the interest of consumers, and WA consumers particularly, on the Federal Government’s Out of Pocket Costs Transparency Reference Group. Through that group, we advocated that any health service provider that receives public funding should be required to publish their pricing information on the Medical Costs Finder website.

We hope that whoever is in Government after the next election will follow through on this commitment to patient and consumer power and ensure people can make informed decisions about specialist healthcare.

Opinion: It’s time for full transparency on who’s making money out of our healthcare

This is a follow on from our blog post outlining our priorities and listing the election commitments from the two major parties against those priorities.

Based on our discussions with consumers HCC’s priorities for health are:

• Increased access to affordable primary care
• Increased investment in things that help us stay healthy (preventative measures)
• Continued improvement in the safety, efficiency and capacity of the hospital system
• Improved access to health care in the community and closer to home.

Many of our allies in the health consumer and lived experience sector have published their specific requests for election time.  Their answers tell an interesting story of a sector where incredible work could be done if there was adequate funding, but also where there are some excellent, innovative ideas that would not be particularly costly to implement.

Let’s have a look at what’s being asked for:

Carers WA Carers Count at the 2025 State Election | Carers WA

• $400,000 Carer hardship and carer respite grants program for WA Carers
• Establish a Carers card
• A new carers strategy
• $890 000 support for young carers in regional areas
• Establish a service navigation system for carers

Aboriginal Health Council of WA WA State Election: AHCWA’s Key Priorities – AHCWA

• Culturally safe short stay accommodation for pregnant women
• Affordable and appropriate housing
• Funding for Aboriginal Environmental Health Model of care and community capacity building for remote maintenance
• Free dental care for all Aboriginal people in WA
• Social and emotional wellbeing and family and domestic and sexual violence program funding
• Improved child development services
• PATS Coordinator in each region

Developmental Disability WA Election Undertakings 2025 for people with intellectual disability

• Introduce mandatory training on intellectual disabilities for all health staff.
• Set up Specialist Disability Health Hubs in each health region to improve the health and mental health of PwID.
• Ensure the State health plan includes PwID as a priority group.
• Introduce a “flag” to identify intellectual disability in a person’s WA health record
• Contribute to a WA Easy Read website that provides key public information about health and other government services.

Consumers of Mental Health WA Election 2025: An Election for Mental Health – Consumers of Mental Health WA

• An alternative to Emergency departments for people in emotional crisis
• Increase finding to co designed community and peer led mental health services
• Independent review, co-led by people with lived experience, on strategies to eliminate force, seclusion and restraint
• Enhance access to advocacy through mental health advocacy service
• Commit to a human rights act for WA
• Secure and sustainable funding to pilot Aboriginal community controlled services
• Embark on funded commitment to the Gayaa Dhuwi declaration implementation plan

Council on the Ageing WA 2025 Election Platform  – Council On The Ageing WA

• Waive stamp duty for people aged over 65
• Incorporate Silver Housing Standards in the WA Building Code
• Expand the supply of affordable housing
• Introduce a $150 “Fit for Life” voucher for seniors, modelled on the Kidsport initiative
• Fund a “Preparing for the Unexpected” program to support seniors who are likely to be hospitalised due to a complex health issue or frailty
• Fund a falls prevention program
• Provide ongoing $250 000 per annum to Council on the Ageing WA

These priorities have been informed by health consumers, people with lived experience, and input from members of the above organisations. Amplifying and championing the voices of consumers and people with lived experience leads to better outcomes, whether that be in policy development or program delivery.

Including consumer voices goes beyond consultation, it means properly involving people who use the health system to help all of us to understand and address the unfairness in the system.  

What we see when we look at this list is a commitment to important preventative health projects, and projects that would make our health system fairer for all.

These ideas would all contribute to healthier, more connected community members, who are receiving the assistance they need in their communities. This in turn improves the patient experience in our health system and reduces the pressure on the public hospital system meaning that those who need healthcare can get it promptly.

If you’ve any thoughts about any of these, please contact Bronwyn Ife at bronwyn.ife@hconc.org.au