Consultation and engagement

We work with stakeholders including members of the public, other government agencies, peak bodies and service providers. Find out how you can have your say about our policies, initiatives and programs.

Have your say

Go to our Consultation Hub to find consultations and provide feedback on those that may interest you.

Who we work with

We consult and engage with all our stakeholders, including:

  • health and aged care professional and industry groups
  • other Commonwealth, state and territory government departments and agencies
  • health professionals
  • the general public
  • non-government organisations
  • governments and health and ageing organisations in other countries
  • Council of Australian Governments (COAG)

Why our stakeholders are important

We consult and engage with our stakeholders to help us understand the health, aged care and sports needs of our community.

We know that we don’t have expertise on every subject. Our stakeholders have valuable experience in delivering services and can offer insights into what works best.

They share their expertise to help us deliver high quality policies, programs and services.

Professionals and industry stakeholders offer expertise and specialist knowledge to our committees, forums and partnerships.

We also have a strong international focus.

How we consult and engage

Our Stakeholder Engagement Framework sets out the principles and standards that apply when we consult and engage with our stakeholders.

We encourage input from stakeholders in various ways including:

  • Committees and groups

    We use committees and groups to work on specific topics or issues. We often engage the specialist expertise of our stakeholders to help us achieve our goals.
  • Consultations

    Input into our consultations helps us to better understand the problems we are trying solve and the needs of the community. Go to our Consultation Hub to find consultations and provide feedback on those that may interest you.
  • Forums

    Our forums bring together governments, experts, consumers and other stakeholders. They help us to understand the needs of our stakeholders when we are planning future work.
  • Agreed collaborations

    We work with stakeholders on projects, initiatives and reference groups. These types of collaborations are formal relationships based on agreements and contracts, such as terms of reference and memoranda of understanding (MOUs).

International engagement

We have a strong international focus on the global issue of health. 

Australia’s health system is one of the best in the world. This puts us in a strong position to work with other countries and share our technical knowledge and skills.

We preserve Australia’s national interests as we work with other countries to:

  • protect Australia from disease outbreaks and health threats
  • track and respond to global issues in health, aged care and sport 
  • develop and implement international best practice
  • promote international action on important issues
  • support other countries to meet critical benchmarks
  • collaborate on research and innovation.

This includes through a partnership between Australia and Indonesia promoting cooperation in health care, health resilience, health financing, health talent and health technology.

Through our international work, our goals are to: 

  • protect the health of Australians
  • keep Australia’s health system at the forefront of international best practice
  • use evidence-based international standards to support strong health systems and better health in Australia and internationally
  • contribute to Australia’s foreign, development, trade and economic policy outcomes.

Read about how we’re meeting our goals.

Date last updated:

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