The Hearing Health Sector Alliance (HHSA) has named four priority actions for the 2025 Australian federal election including extending the Hearing Services Program (HSP) to those on low incomes, mandating hearing screening on admission to aged care and creating a new HSP Schedule item for aged care screening.
Other priorities focus on addressing the regional and remote workforce shortages and improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing health.
The HHSA, which represents 15 of the nation’s peak organisations involved in hearing health, has presented its election priorities list to all ministers and shadow ministers whose portfolios include health, social services, Indigenous health and aged care.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on 28 March 2025 that the 2025 federal election will take place on Saturday 3 May 2025.
The HHSA 2025 Election Priorities statement says: “The HHSA urges all levels of government to commit to improving access to hearing health care for Australia’s most vulnerable populations through four priority actions: prioritising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing health, enhancing care for aged care residents, addressing regional workforce shortages, and supporting low-income and unemployed individuals.”
HSP for low income and unemployed
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 statement says.
“Many Australians with hearing loss, especially those on low incomes or who are unemployed, are left unsupported due to restrictive eligibility requirements. 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.”
Aged care proposals
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.
“Whilst one in six Australians experience hearing loss, this number rises significantly amongst residents in aged care—where hearing loss is estimated to affect more than five in six older persons. Despite this, 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.
“This service gap can lead to misdiagnoses of cognitive decline, increased risks of isolation and mental illness.”
Workforce proposals
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 are most needed,” it said
It also 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 states. “This imbalance exacerbates barriers to care in underserved regions and thin markets.”
Improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing health
It said the government had a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact meaningful improvements in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing. Recommendations include reviewing reassessing 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.
For example, in 2023–2024 the outreach target was missed by nearly 30%, potentially leaving 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children without a diagnosis of hearing loss or appropriate ear and hearing health treatment, while resources such as mobile clinics were used in urban, well serviced areas for much of the year.
A second priority is refining funding mechanisms in the Community Service Obligations program to make it focussed on and responsive to local community needs, not a set service model (such as fly in/fly out or mobile clinics) or restricted to a specific provider. This includes making service provision contestable, enabling a broader array of qualified providers to deliver services to First Nations communities.
A third priority 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 to enable culturally responsive services that are accountable to and aligned with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.
Closing the gap a priority
“Hearing health remains a significant concern amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia, with rates of middle ear infections and hearing loss far exceeding those of non-Indigenous children,” the HHSA statement says. “Closing the gap in ear and hearing health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples requires culturally sensitive approaches that prioritise early intervention, community engagement, and equitable access to healthcare services.”
Ms Jane MacDonald, HHSA chair, said the alliance was a collaborative resource for governments and policymakers, offering unified expertise on hearing health matters across sectors. It brings together key national voices in the hearing health ecosystem to improve equitable access to essential hearing health support for all Australians.
HHSA members include Audiology Australia, the Australian College of Audiology incorporating the Hearing Aid Audiological Society of Australia, Hearing Business Alliance, the Hearing Care Industry Association, National Acoustic Laboratories, First Voice, the Hearing Aid Manufacturers and Distributors of Australia, Ear Science Institute Australia, Soundfair, The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, Macquarie University, The Australian Society of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Speech Pathology Australia and Indigenous Allied Health Australia.
More reading
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