Tough Federal Budget – signals austere times for healthcare
25 Feb 2026
The Age and SMH report “no nice-to-haves” in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s demands for budget austerity, stating that ministers need to find billions in savings for the May budget. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/no-nice-to-haves-albanese-demands-ministers-find-billions-in-savings-for-may-budget-20260224-p5o53t.html
In discussions with the commonwealth Department of Health Disability and Aging (DHDA), PTA has heard that there is no new money for the projects we have been promoting in POCT, genomics and digital health. This is particularly concerning given the already very slow pace of change in the adoption of pathology technology and the lack of real funding to support its uptake.
This makes PTA’s Congress PTA-C/26 an even more important platform for change in healthcare. Bringing together a broad range of healthcare participants to discuss and reach consensus on how technology can be better used to deliver a more sustainable, patient centred and accessible healthcare system. PTA Congress
But there are steps the Health Minister and the Department can take immediately that cost very little but set a clear vision and roadmap for where we want healthcare to be. PTA has been calling for a Diagnostics Roadmap and a multidisciplinary diagnostics advisory panel to provide advice and guidance to government on diagnostic technology enabling healthcare of the future. This includes advice on faster adoption of new and existing technology, applications of technology to address key healthcare missions and introducing a “pull” approach for new technology (rather than waiting for companies to “push”).