The Centre focuses on Australia’s health and care workforce within the context of geographic diversity across the country and as part of Australia’s role in health security in the dynamic Asia Pacific region.

Australia’s health workforce is a highly regulated, highly skilled and high-cost national resource, which is the single largest segment (15%) of the nation’s labour force. This workforce is the major asset and resource base underpinning the nation’s healthcare system, accounting for over 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is the principal resource input to our nation’s health and community care system and the key enabler of its most advanced and substantial research capability.

Over the past decades, Australia has experienced long-term, entrenched imbalances between the supply and demand of its health and care workforce. Insufficient supply has contributed to significant distribution challenges across rural, remote and metropolitan settings; industry segments (between hospital, primary care, aged and disability care); and for example, medical specialties such as general practice psychiatry, internal medicine, women’s health, and geriatrics. Typically, shortfalls in supply have been met by skilled migration, both temporary and permanent, to fill the gaps in overall industry workforce requirements and distribution. Co-ordination of policy and planning approaches for the nation’s health and care workforce continues to be both a major challenge and great opportunity.

Public policy responses continue to evolve with a complex mix of Commonwealth, State and Territory jurisdictional accountabilities; slowly improving data, intelligence and planning systems; and an insufficient evidence base to inform public policy, program design and evaluation.

The ANU National Centre for Health Workforce Studies draws together research, data, planning and intelligence insights through its national research, education and policy leadership program. These insights are used to support government policymakers, industry, professions, regulators and the higher education sector to address current and future workforce priorities.

The Centre is also contributing to better understanding health security in our region through attention to global health and care worker compacts and recruitment code of practice, analysis of population health and economic surveys, and engagements with Australian and international organisations.