NSW Government under pressure over health inquiry deadline

The NSW Labor Government has yet to reveal how many of the recommendations from its own health funding inquiry have been implemented, five months after the inquiry’s deadline.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park was asked last month during Budget Estimates how many recommendations from the NSW Government’s own Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding had been implemented and whether the government would table an implementation plan.

He took the questions on notice. To date, he has provided no answers.

The silence come more than five months after the inquiry’s commissioner, the Hon. Justice Richard Beasley, said its recommendations should be implemented by April 2026.

The Special Commission of Inquiry laid bare deep structural, funding and governance failures confronting the NSW public health system. Conducted over 70 hearing days across 18 months, the inquiry produced 41 recommendations, with Justice Beasley concluding that the system required “significant work” and that responsibility for its shortcomings rested with both state and federal governments.

“The failure to embed prevention in all its forms into the health system despite repeated and evidence-based recommendations to do so is beyond my comprehension,” said Justice Beasley at the time when the report was released.

Despite the April deadline, the NSW Government has yet to publicly account for how many recommendations have been completed, which remain outstanding or when an implementation plan will be released.

The Minns Labor Government is, however, preparing to put preventive health back in the spotlight. It has confirmed the NSW Preventive Health Summit will be held in Western Sydney from 7 to 9 October, with prevention and health equity expected to feature prominently in its response to the inquiry’s findings.

While details of the Summit remain scarce, it is broadly intended to build consensus around potential health system and cross-government approaches to preventive health. Discussions will be informed by NSW Health’s The Health of the People of NSW 2026 report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the health and wellbeing of the NSW population, although the report has not yet been publicly released.

NSW Health is expected to prepare a further report following the Summit for presentation to the NSW Government. That report is expected to inform the next phase of the government’s preventive health policy agenda. The key test, however, will be whether the Summit produces measurable action rather than another layer of policy discussion.

With the NSW election due in March 2027, the government is facing a narrowing window to demonstrate progress on recommendations from an inquiry it commissioned itself, including those that were due to be implemented five months ago.

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