Topp, Stephanie M., Nguyen, Thu, and Elliot, Lana M. (2025) Federal health workforce policy in Australia and its implications: a descriptive policy document review. Medical Journal of Australia. (In Press)

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Abstract

Objective To identify which federal health workforce policies are current in Australia, and describe their mode, scope, and focus.

Study design Descriptive policy document review; categorisation according to the Howlett–Ramesh policy instrument framework.

Setting Health workforce policy documents available on the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care website, 1 June – 31 October 2024.

Main outcome measures Primary policy focus (specific health profession, population group or location); scope of policy (alignment with one or more strategic domains: supply, distribution, or performance), service sectors affected by policy, substantive mention of specific health professions; policy instrument types.

Results We included 121 policy documents in our analysis. By policy group, the number of documents was greatest for the rural health workforce (35), aged care (22), and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce (19); the numbers were lowest for pharmacy (three) and allied health (one), and none had public health or emergency care as their focus. Mixed policy instruments (multiple interest group programs, sub-programs, incentives, grants) were more numerous (98 documents) than government-led instruments (23 documents). Health workforce supply was a focus of 72 documents, performance of 57 documents, and distribution of 42 documents. Document nomenclature was inconsistent; 44 documents had policy labels that did not correspond to their content or purpose.

Conclusion We identified substantial fragmentation in Australian federal health workforce policy. The absence of a unified federal health workforce strategy exacerbates policy fragmentation, undermining coordinated workforce planning and equity. Adopting a consistent policy nomenclature and reducing imbalances in strategic focus are critical for effective health workforce reform. Our findings provide a baseline for analyses of policy processes and governance in Australian health workforce policymaking.

Item ID:	87558
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1326-5377
Keywords:	Australia, health workforce, human resources for health, health policy, policy review
Copyright Information:	© 2025 The Author(s). Medical Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AMPCo Pty Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Funders:	National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Projects and Grants:	NHMRC Investigator grant (GNT2034261)
Date Deposited:	20 Oct 2025 22:43
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4203 Health services and systems > 420311 Health systems @ 100%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2002 Evaluation of health and support services > 200205 Health policy evaluation @ 100%
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