Last week the Victorian Government handed down it 2023-24 Budget. Unlike previous years, there was a conspicuous absence of the usual leaks ahead of the Budget being introduced to Parliament. This year there were only a handful of carefully dropped leaks, but they were the kind of things expected, infrastructure and healthcare, and not helpful in revealing what might be in the budget. The Victorian State Budget this year does not promise big spending as it has in previous budget cycles. This budget is more focused on returning to surplus while maintaining funding for previously identified projects and areas of priority. This year’s State Budget, in short, has nothing significant for members other than the maintenance of funding for projects announced in previous years; and additional recurring funding. There has been no additional dedicated funding put towards expanding our disciplines’ workforces to address the clear shortfalls in but there is more encouragement for people to enter our disciplines. The clear workforce shortfalls are seemingly being acknowledged; however, these do not relate directly to our membership, which the emphasis continuing to be on nurses. The Budget papers clearly show the Victorian Government is well aware of the shortfalls in the mental health workforce and the capacity of the public health system to respond in a pandemic, and now in the so-called post-COVID era. However, the funding identified in the Budget to expand Victoria’s mental health workforce only maintains recurring funding and does not expand the existing budget allocations. While there has been funding set aside in mental health to address the workforce shortfalls, albeit with an emphasis on counsellors and mental health nurses, there has not been the same sort of funding (or commitment to funding) set aside to address the workforce shortfalls in our other disciplines. Funding for mental health is recurring funding already committed in earlier budgets, including recurring funding allocated to adopting and implementing the Royal Commission recommendations. There is also a lack of clarity in the Budget about funding towards the reforms in pathology in public hospitals, however further analysis of additional budget papers is required to determine if funding for the pathology reforms may be delivered through other existing or proposed Departmental funding sources. The Budget also provides no identifiable new funding for hospital pharmacists or public hospital pharmacies. However, there is funding being provided...