- A damning new report into the management of funding from the Mental Health Levy has shown funds were being used to prop up Labor's health budget, and weren't being quarantined for mental health services.
- The audit is a scathing assessment of Labor's health legacy, uncovering how the now multibillion dollar Mental Health Levy was established without effective governance and administered without proper planning.
- The Crisafulli Government has already allocated more than $350 million in additional Mental Health Levy funding for new and expanded mental health initiatives just as it promised.
A scathing new independent report from Queensland's Auditor General has exposed the Mental Health Levy was mismanaged and was funnelled into non-mental health projects under the former Labor Government.
The Queensland Audit Office's Managing Funding from the Mental Health Levy report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, found the former Labor Government did not establish effective governance arrangements when the now multibillion levy was introduced in 2023, resulting in the ineffective management of Queensland taxpayer dollars.
Key findings include:
- A lack of governance structures meant the former Labor Government didn't know whether the funds were even being used for mental health services.
- There was no assessment or evaluation of whether the funds were being used to maximum benefit for Queenslanders.
- There was no coordinated approach to manage the Levy under the former Government.
Health and Ambulance Services Minister Tim Nicholls separately directed Queensland Health to conduct a mid-term review examining the Department's Mental Health Levy investment through Labor's Better Care Together plan.
This internal review, conducted last year, found:
- several initiatives announced and even commenced under the former Labor government had not been funded;
- the Mental Health Levy was used to fund programs out of scope; and
- many initiatives were significantly delayed, leading to funding deferrals.
A key election promise of the Crisafulli Government was to redirect every cent of the Mental Health Levy into mental health, for the benefit of Queenslanders.
In December 2025, the Crisafulli Government allocated more than $350 million in additional funding from the Mental Health Levy to new and expanded mental health initiatives, including ensuring the Labor's previously committed but unfunded projects could be delivered.
The Crisafulli Government's investment means critical services can continue operating, including enhancing and expanding mental health, alcohol and other drug care.
This includes 30 new perinatal mental health beds across the State, more mental health clinicians in emergency departments to strengthen, triage and support vulnerable Queenslanders, and the funding to unlock alcohol and other drug bed capacity across the State.
The Crisafulli Government will consider the Auditor General's report and recommendations over the coming months to determine how the approach to oversight, allocation, management and monitoring of the Mental Health Levy can be strengthened and how these critical services deliver for Queenslanders.
Minister Nicholls said both reviews outlined a lack of fiscal responsibility during the former Labor Government's decade of decline.
"I was disappointed, but unfortunately not shocked, to read the levy had been mismanaged under Labor," Minister Nicholls said.
"It was also no surprise the independent Queensland Audit Office made the decision to conduct its own review into the management of the Mental Health Levy.
"We've seen this time and time again since coming into Government, including with the scathing independent report into Labor's failed Capacity Expansion Program which cited a lack of proper planning and oversight led to $7 billion in cost blowouts and major delays on key hospital build projects.
"The Crisafulli Government has turned the tide on hospital infrastructure with our fully-funded Hospital Rescue Plan, and now we are ensuring the Mental Health Levy is actually being used for its intended purpose."
