The Hearing Health Sector Alliance is a unique body, bringing together peak voices who leave their individual interests at the door to unite and improve access to hearing health support for all Australians. HPA profiles its achievements and priorities to date.
The Hearing Health Sector Alliance (HHSA) may not be something practitioners think about while tucked away in their clinic engaged in the bustle of daily practice life.
But it is worth thinking of – or at least knowing about – because while the industry’s clinicians are at work, this group of leaders from the nation’s hearing sector is regularly meeting, planning and advocating for practitioners and their patients. They’re fighting for, or protecting, the frameworks that prop up audiology practices across the country.
The alliance encompasses national representatives of consumer groups, health professionals, business/industry associations, educators and research organisations. And it’s exploring ways to expand membership.
“It’s a collaborative resource for governments and policymakers, offering unified expertise on hearing health matters across sectors,” says Ms Jane MacDonald, HHSA chair and CEO of Hearing Business Alliance. “It brings together key national voices in the hearing health ecosystem to improve equitable access to essential hearing health support for all Australians.”
The alliance works with governments to implement the Roadmap for Hearing Health, a framework to improve hearing health nationwide which outlines actions for governments and the sector to address.
The organisation elevates the priority of hearing health in the minds of policy makers. “We advocate to maximise access to the very best hearing health care within Australia and for better education of Australians about hearing health,” MacDonald adds.
Since its formation seven years ago, the alliance has offered a concentrated, single voice for the Federal Government to listen to, regularly meeting with Department of Health as well as Hearing Services Branch key personnel.
Signalling the importance of HHSA, in 2020 the Department of Health acknowledged the organisation as the main peak body for the sector.
Mr Chris Carlile, assistant secretary, Hearing Services Branch, Department of Health and Aged Care, said: “The department very much values the role that the HHSA plays in bringing together key stakeholders in hearing health.
“The diversity of expertise gathered together in the alliance remains an important consideration for the government in ensuring we fully understand the needs of the hearing health sector.”
The alliance has quarterly and interim meetings of its executive including MacDonald and vice-chair, AudA CEO Ms Leanne Emerson. Its focus is on aged care, Indigenous ear health, research priorities, and supporting vulnerable Australians.
Extending HSP in aged care and low incomes
In March 2025, the HHSA set its priorities for the 2025 Australian federal election, including extending the Hearing Services Program (HSP) to those on low incomes, mandating hearing screening within one month of admission to aged care, and creating a new HSP Schedule item for aged care screening.
Other priorities focus on improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing health and addressing regional and remote workforce shortages. It sent the priorities to all ministers and shadow ministers whose portfolios included health, social services, Indigenous health and aged care.
Its recommendation to extend the HSP is to support low-income and unemployed individuals with hearing loss greater than 26 dB in the better ear. “This initiative would increase employment opportunities, estimated to yield $311 million in productivity gains, while improving the budget position by $33,135 for each individual who gains employment, ultimately generating a net fiscal benefit of over $268 million,” the priorities statement says.
“With approximately 15,000 individuals excluded from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) due to strict hearing loss eligibility thresholds, this group faces significant barriers to wellbeing, social inclusion, and employment.”
The HHSA believes two key initiatives the government could implement would make a huge difference to older Australians in aged care settings.
The first is mandating a uniform protocol to conduct hearing screening for all new residents of aged care facilities within one month of residency in the facility and include this as a quality metric in aged care reporting.
The second is creating a new schedule item in the HSP Schedule for aged care facility hearing screenings at the same price as a hearing assessment ($157.40), reflecting the true cost for hearing health care professionals to conduct remote visits and diagnostic services.
“There is no standardised approach to managing hearing loss in aged care, leaving many residents unsupported and creating communication challenges between residents and staff,” the statement says.
To address regional and remote workforce shortages, HHSA recommends reducing HECS debts for domestically trained hearing health professionals by 10% for each year they live and work in designated regional or remote areas. “With only around 250 new domestic graduates each year, this measure would attract more professionals to areas where they’re most needed,” it says.
It urges improving the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) visa for hearing health professionals, including lowering application fees, adjusting residency requirements, and increasing the age limit to attract skilled international professionals to regional areas.
People experience hearing loss at higher rates in rural and remote areas yet hearing health professionals are concentrated in urban centres, it says. This exacerbates barriers to care in underserved regions and thin markets.
It says the government has a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact meaningful improvements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing. Recommendations include reviewing Hearing Australia’s outreach targets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and hold contracted service providers to account regarding resource allocation relative to achievement of agreed targets.
A second priority is refining funding mechanisms in the Community Service Obligations program to make it focussed on and responsive to local community needs. A third is mandating ear and hearing health professionals to move away from a standard approach of service delivery and embed cultural safety at an individual and system level.
Submissions on critical issues
The HHSA is an unincorporated association, independent of government and political parties and doesn’t receive funding from the private sector. It’s been involved in advocacy and support of a wide range of issues including supporting Audiology Australia (AudA)’s Teleaudiology Guidelines and Paediatric Competency Standards, and a white paper on the rural and regional workforce.
It’s put in submissions to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on hearing aid button battery safety, and a pre-Budget submission to the HSP Review on vulnerable Australians.
Other key priorities include the Roadmap for Hearing Health, and a HHSA Action Plan 2023-2025.
At a meeting in Melbourne in March 2025, the alliance refined position statements and advanced action plans for priority areas. They are to:
• Advocate for the very best hearing health care and support for all people who experience hearing difficulty.
• Close the gap in ear and hearing health for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
• Increase support for aged, vulnerable, disadvantaged people and communities.
• Significantly improve the rural and regional hearing health care workforce.
• Enhance and focus nationally funded research to achieve targeted impact.
Alliance history
The alliance evolved after the 2016 Parliamentary Inquiry into Hearing Health and Wellbeing of Australia. In 2017, the ACCC investigated issues around hearing aid sales, and in 2018 the Australian Government responded to the Inquiry: ‘Still Waiting to be Heard’.
This led to then-Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care, Mr Ken Wyatt, establishing a Hearing Health Sector Committee in 2018 to develop the roadmap. A roadmap committee formed, representing 16 organisations, with independent chair, Mr David Tune AO PSM. It had four meetings between July 2018 and January 2019, with additional sector consultation, which included two stakeholder forums in September 2018 and February 2019.
The Roadmap for Hearing Health was released in February 2019, and endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on 8 March 2019. In February 2019, then-Audiology Australia CEO, Dr Tony Coles, wrote to eight organisations, inviting them to meet to form an alliance.
The HHSA was modelled on the National Aged Care Alliance and officially launched on 2 September 2019. The HHSA has since expanded to include 15 member bodies. It has narrowed down roadmap recommendations from 140 to five priorities.
“We continue to hold governments to account to ensure all Australians who are Deaf or hard of hearing can live well in the community and access vital education, services and technology,” MacDonald says.
