News
14 May 2026

Budget 2026-27: What does it mean for cancer nursing in Australia

The Hon. Dr Jim Chalmers handed down a budget which ‘rebalances the tax system’, framed as a legacy budget focused on reform and long-term stability. It arrives at a time of local cost-of-living focus, amid global conflict and fuel uncertainty. Health emerged as one of the comparatively stronger portfolios in a tight budget. The budget focuses on interventions across aged care, disability and health, building a stronger Medicare, preventative health, and reforms to the National Disability Insurance Scheme - but disappointingly no funding for the National Nursing Workforce Strategy, which should be a key priority for the government to implement the recommendations of the Cormack Review into the scope of practice and enable and fund more nurse-led models of care.

CNSA will continue to advocate for government action in this space alongside other nursing professional bodies such as the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) and the Australian College of Nursing (ACN). 

The top announcements relevant to cancer nurses include:

Preventative health: The Government will provide $488.2 million over five years from 2025–26 to improve health outcomes through preventive health, equitable access and early intervention. Funding includes:

  • $31.1 million to continue providing bowel cancer screening to 45-49-year-old participants as part of the National Bowel Cancer Screening program. 
  • $15.0 million to continue the national skin cancer prevention campaign.
  • The Government will also extend the delivery timeframe for activities responding to the National Dust Disease Taskforce final report by two years to 30 June 2028.

Health services: The Government is estimated to provide support for the delivery of health services in the states and territories. Funding includes:

  • Eliminating Cervical Cancer in Australia: $9 million to improve and expand cervical cancer screening services.
  • Smoking and vaping activities: $4.5 million to scale up state Quitline capacity and quit services to support increased demand through additional workforce, training for Quitline counsellors, and enhanced use of technology.

Strengthening Medicare: The Government will provide $2.1 billion over five years from 2025–26 to ensure all Australians have affordable access to high-quality primary and specialist health care services and to increase access to bulk billing. Funding includes:

  • $47.6 million over four years to increase the value of grants under the Radiation Oncology Health Program Grants Scheme to maintain access to affordable cancer treatment for concession card holders.
  • $2.1 million to commission specialist advice to inform the development of future specialist affordability reforms to help address the high and increasing costs of seeing a specialist, improving informed financial consent and standardised fee disclosure, building on previously announced upgrades to the Medical Costs Finder.
  • $1.8 billion over 5 years for ongoing funding of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
  • $119.3 million over 3 years to extend the Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement Incentive until 30 June 2028.
  • The Government will provide $25 billion in additional Commonwealth funding for public hospitals, including $24.4 billion in additional funding through the 2026–31 National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA).

Improving Access and Uptake of Medicines and Clinical Trials: The Government will provide $590.7 million over five years from 2025–26 to improve access to medicines, vaccines and health technologies for Australians. Funding includes:

  • $71.0 million over three years from 2026–27 to continue the Precision Oncology Screening Platform Enabling Clinical Trials (PrOSPeCT) program to give patients with advanced or poor prognosis cancer access to comprehensive genomic profiling to identify matches to potential clinical trials.
  • $3.4 million to increase the number and value of clinical trials to deliver health benefits, provide jobs and improve the nation’s innovative capacity.
  • $15.8 million over 2 years from 2026-27 to fund the next stage of implementation of a National One Stop Shop for clinical trials and human research.

The Medical Research Future Fund: Increasing disbursements from the MRFF by $505.2 million over the next 4 years and will increase the annual investment from $650.0 million per annum to $1.0 billion per annum from 2030-31. This investment will strengthen Australia’s health and medical research system, improve health outcomes, and foster innovation through coordinated long-term investment.

Comprehensive Cancer Centres: The Government is estimated to provide $650.9 million to support the development of health-related infrastructure, including $325.5 million to support the establishment of Comprehensive Cancer Centres in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

First Nations health and Closing the Gap: The Government is estimated to provide $104.2 million to the states for programs to improve the health of First Nations people.

The National Health Reform Agreement includes a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health schedule. This will embed the National Agreement on Closing the Gap into the mainstream health system. The Commonwealth will contribute a $248.7 million over 5 years, matched by $200 million from states and territories, to support implementation of the schedule.

Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)- New and Amended Listings: The Government will provide $5.9 billion over five years from 2025–26 for new and amended listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Digital Health:

  • $79.2 million to support implementation of national digital health reforms in the 2026-2031 Addendum to the National Health Reform Agreement.
  • $24 million to support the implementation of national digital health reforms in the 2026–2031 Addendum to the National Health Reform Agreement. The Commonwealth will prioritise adoption of national digital health capabilities that improve health information sharing and progress alignment of state digital infrastructure with national infrastructure.

Other National partnership programs: The Government is estimated to provide $273.6 million to the states in other health-related National Partnership payments. The funding include the provision of lymphoedema garments and an allied health therapy program $2 million.

To learn more, you can access the full budget here and the health announcements here.

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