The Centre for Muslim Wellbeing (CMW) welcomes the release of the Productivity Commission’s final report into the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement. The report provides an honest assessment of a mental health system that continues to fall short for many communities especially Muslim, multicultural and newly arrived communities who face unique barriers to culturally safe care.
In our August 2025 submission, CMW outlined cultural safety gaps, the impacts of Islamophobia and racialised trauma, and the difficulties our communities face in accessing services that reflect their identity, values and lived experiences. With more than 813,000 Muslims in Australia—one of the youngest and fastest-growing populations—ensuring meaningful reform is urgent and necessary.
What the Report Gets Right
The Commission correctly recognises that:
• The mental health system remains fragmented and complex to navigate
• Priority communities continue to be underserved
• accountability and reporting are weak
• lived experience must guide reform
• governments require clearer roles and better coordination
These findings align closely with CMW’s work across youth wellbeing, carer support, trauma-informed community programs and crisis response services.
Where the Report Falls Short
Despite identifying “culturally diverse communities” as a priority population, our communities are not being prioritised in practice and remain largely invisible in planning, commissioning and system design.
Key gaps include:
• Islamophobia and racialised trauma are not recognised as mental health determinants
• no dedicated national Muslim or faith-based mental health strategy
• Cultural safety and religious literacy standards are not mandated
• No mechanism exists to support communities during spikes in distress caused by global conflict or racism
• no long-term commitment to partnering with Muslim-led and multicultural organisations
These omissions risk leaving our communities behind for another decade.
Why Action Is Needed Now
The subsequent National Agreement will guide mental health reform for 5–10 years.
If Muslim and multicultural communities are not included now, their needs will remain absent in policy, funding and accountability frameworks long into the future.
CMW’s Call to Government
CMW urges the Commonwealth and State Governments to ensure that the next Agreement:
1. Includes a dedicated Muslim Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy, co-designed with community leaders, carers, youth, imams and health professionals
2. Mandates cultural safety and religious literacy standards across services and commissioning
3. Invests in long-term partnerships with Muslim-led and multicultural community organisations
4. Recognises and responds to racialised and global trauma, including Islamophobia and conflict-related distress
5. Embeds Muslim and multicultural lived experience in governance, evaluation and oversight
Message from the Executive Officer
“A system that reports rising suicide rates, increasing delays in care and unclear responsibilities across jurisdictions cannot claim to meet the needs of the people it is meant to serve — we at the Centre for Muslim Wellbeing stand ready to work with governments to drive the inclusive, culturally safe reform our community needs.”
— Ayman Islam, Executive Officer, Centre for Muslim Wellbeing
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About the Centre for Muslim Wellbeing
Since 2018, the Centre for Muslim Wellbeing (CMW) has supported communities across Victoria and other states through mental health literacy programs, cultural safety training, carer support, youth resilience workshops, trauma-informed community sessions, school wellbeing programs, crisis response, and community-led wellbeing initiatives. We work closely with educators, health professionals, imams, community leaders, families and young people to build a more accessible, inclusive and culturally safe mental health system for Muslim and multicultural communities across Australia.
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Read CMW’s full submission to the Productivity Commission: https://cmw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CMW-Submission-to-the-Productivity-Commission-August-2025-1.pdf
