Future Healthy Countdown 2030: Measuring what matters for good health and wellbeing for all of Australia’s children and young people
How does the countdown work?
Each year until 2030, the Countdown brings the best available evidence and policy priorities together in one place in an annual supplement to the Medical Journal of Australia.
Each supplement dives deep into one of the seven domains of the Countdown, spotlighting the best evidence for improving outcomes across this area while also tracking annual progress against key measures and targets for each domain of the Countdown.
Crucially, the Countdown will include the voices of young people to ensure they play a part in shaping their future.
The Countdown policy actions
1. Overarching
Establish a federal Future Generations Commission with legislated powers to protect the interests of future generations.
2. Material basics
Provide financial support to invest in families with young children and address poverty and material deprivation in the first 2,000 days of life.
3. Valued, loved and safe
Establish a national investment fund to provide sustained, culturally relevant, maternal and child health and development home visiting services for the first 2,000 days of life for all children facing structural disadvantage and/or adversity.
4. Positive sense of identity and culture
Implement a dedicated funding model for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early years services across the country to ensure these services are fully resourced to provide quality early learning and integrated services grounded in culture and community.
5. Learning and employment pathways
Properly fund public schools, starting by providing full and accountable Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) funding for all schools, with immediate effect for schools in communities facing structural disadvantage.
6. Healthy
Establish legislation and regulation to protect children and young people under 18 years from the marketing of unhealthy and harmful products.
7. Participating
Amend the electoral act to extend the compulsory voting age to 16 years.
8. Environments and sustainable futures
Legislate an immediate end to all new fossil fuel projects in Australia.
The research so far
The 2024 supplement
Measuring what matters for good health and wellbeing for all of Australia’s children and young people.
The 2024 publication focuses on the importance of ‘participating’ for health and wellbeing. A core policy action in this domain is lowering the voting age to 16 to empower young people and strengthen Australia’s political system to tackle inequalities.
Click here to find out more
The 2023 supplement
Participating for the health and wellbeing of Australia’s children and young people.
This inaugural publication provides a framework to guide policy action and investment in what matters for children and young people.
Click here to find out more
Future Healthy Countdown is a collaboration between ARACY, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and VicHealth.
Click here to find out more about our partners