Australian doctors issue damning report on future of nation’s children

A major study of the wellbeing of Australian children has found it stagnating or in decline across 21 of 22 key measures – and a group of senior doctors is pointing the finger.

The Labor government is not on track to give children a fairer, healthier, cleaner future, according to leading Australian doctors and researchers.

A high-profile group, including prominent doctors Professor Fiona Stanley AC and Professor Sharon Goldfeld AM, have published a damning assessment of the state of Australia’s children.

It shows children’s wellbeing has stagnated or declined on 21 of 22 key measures, with high rates of obesity, mental health problems, developmental delay and educational disadvantage.

The report is the first progress snapshot from the Future Healthy Countdown 2030 initiative, which is tracking the state of Australia’s children over the next five years.

It concludes that real progress has only been made in 2025 on one of 22 major health and development measures: an increase in voter enrolment rates.

Areas going backwards include proficiency in civics education, NAPLAN literacy and numeracy gaps and the amount of children going without the basics.

The report also highlights the government’s continuation of government subsidies for fossil fuel industries and the lack of progress on energy renewables.

Professor Sharon Goldfeld is a paediatrician and Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at MCRI and the Royal CHildren's Hospital. Picture: Supplied.

Education Minister Jason Clare during Question Time at Parliament House. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Other areas of negligible change include the school-readiness of children, the amount of Indigenous children on track, poverty, housing, mental health problems and obesity.

Centre for Community and Child Health director, Professor Goldfeld, said it was “disappointing that in a modern nation like ours we are unable to achieve better outcomes for our children and young people.

“But the good news is we know what needs to be done to reverse these trends. Policy solutions are within grasp and the public wants to see them implemented- now that’s a reason to be optimistic for the future.”

Report co-author Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis said Australia “has the tools to help every child and young person thrive, but too many of us are being left behind”.

“Australia’s children and young people are calling on all governments to step up and take action to reverse this trajectory,” she said.

The report is published in the Medical Journal of Australia, with lead author Georgie Frykberg saying that “implementing these policy actions and improving the results of outcome measures by 2030 will benefit children and young people now and build a fairer future for generations to come”

“Australia is not yet on track to deliver a fairer, healthier future for its children and young people,” she said.

The project included a nationally representative survey of nearly 10,000 Australians conducted by Deakin University that shows a vast disconnect between current policy and programs for children and the wishes of the general public.

The project is a joint initiative of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and VicHealth.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Mark Butler said: “ The Albanese Government wants a healthy, active Australia.

“The government is working with the processed food industry to reduce the amount of sodium, sugar and saturated fat across a range of products through the Healthy Food Partnership Reformulation Program,” she said.

“The Health Minister has also commissiones the University of Wollongong to do a feasibility study on options for limiting unhealthy food marketing in Australia, which will be reporting this year.

“The feasibility study will provide a better understanding of the options available for consideration by all governments. Implementation of options will be a shared responsibility of the Australian Government, state and territory governments and non-government partners,” she said.

Minister for Education Jason Clare said the “$16.5 billion is the biggest new investment by the Australian Government in public schools ever.

“This is not a blank cheque. This funding is tied to real and practical reforms that are starting to roll out now. When it comes to early education and care, we know it’s children who need it most who are least likely to access it,” he said.

“That’s why we’re guaranteeing three days of subsidised early education and care for every child who needs it from January. And it’s why we’ve established the Building Early Education Fund to build and expand centres in areas of need,” he said.

Professor Fiona Stanley will launch a petition on Monday Referendum Council's proposed indigenous "voice" to parliament

The doctors and experts who wrote the paper

Georgie Frykberg, Angelica Ojinnaka‐Psillakis, Planning Saw, Kevin Kapeke, Cham Kim, Amie Furlong, Susan Maury, Anna M H Price, Peter D Sly, Taylor Dee Hawkins, Khalid Muse, Pasi Sahlberg, Prue Warrilow, Fiona J Stanley, Jordan Cory, Carolyn Wallace, Adam Valvasori, Ngiare Brown, Craig A Olsson, Yichao Wang, Sharon R Goldfeld, Rosemary Calder and Kate Lycett

The policy platform

• Provide financial support to address poverty and material deprivation in the first 2,000 days of life.

• Invest in sustained, culturally relevant, maternal and child health and development home visiting services for the first 2,000 days of life for all children facing structural disadvantage and/or adversity.

• Implement a dedicated funding model for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early years services across the country.

• Properly fund public schools.

• Protect children from the marketing of unhealthy and harmful products.

• Amend the electoral act to extend the compulsory voting age to 16 years.

•Legislate an immediate end to all new fossil fuel projects in Australia.

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Originally published as Australian doctors issue damning report on future of nation’s children