An independent report that found just 54 of the government’s 270 promised mental health reforms had been completed was reworked ahead of its publication to credit it with doubling progress on royal commission recommendations.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s original report also had its judging criteria changed, its ratings improved, and its most critical findings removed in the months after it was first presented to the government.
The delayed release and reworking of the report has drawn criticism over the stalled overhaul of the sector following the royal commission and raised concerns that the government is undermining the independence of bodies meant to hold it to account.
Even the original report’s author, former Commissioner Annabel Brebner, cast doubt over the credibility of the re-worked findings.
“The initial method emphasised transparency of reporting of progress in implementing the recommendations, and the categories used to assess progress reflected this,” she said in a short statement.
“In my view, the difference in methodology raises questions about the overall reliability and validity of the assessments made.”
Brebner added she had not contacted the MHWC or sought and explanation on why the report’s content had altered so dramatically.
The commission’s long-awaited status update into Victoria’s mental health reforms was presented to the government in December 2025. However, it was not published until June 24, 2026, and, during the six-month delay, at least 75 of the independent commissioners’ original 270 status ratings were improved.
A leaked draft of the commissioners’ original report, which was sent to the Department of Health and some key stakeholders, reveals huge changes were made to the MHWC’s assessments to favour the government’s position.
Many of the strongest concerns raised in the original draft – including the impact of budget cuts, a lack of evidence to support government claims and the refusal of stakeholders to work with the Department of Health – are also missing from the publicly released version in June.
In one example, four of the five sub-recommendations relating to Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing reforms have been upgraded from “partial progress” in December, to “in place” in July, while the sentence “the 2025-26 Budget did not include funding for further development of these initiatives” was cut from its findings.
By the time the report was released the commissioners who wrote the original version had been removed from their positions by an act of parliament, and an interim commissioner, appointed directly by Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt, had overseen its redrafting and public release.
Three senior mental health figures familiar with the report’s delay refused to discuss the circumstances of its rewriting on the record, fearing reprisals from the government and further financial cuts to vital services.
“We have essentially lost independent oversight of the royal commission,” one source said.
Another accused the government of undermining the commission’s ability to monitor the failing sector, including slashing its 2025-26 budget to 40 per cent below its forecast expenses, cutting its staff from 54 to 27, and hobbling its independence.
“The royal commission’s findings were not just about new services, but about improved system governance, outcomes, and culture,” they said.
“To have such a governance body be defunded and demoted before an election, and information withheld by bureaucrats until the minister’s appointee is in control, shows that not much has actually changed on that front, if not getting worse.”
It follows revelations in July that a 33-page CFA report, which gave a blunt assessment of the shortcomings in the state’s firefighting capability, was whitewashed after talks with the state government and cut back to 18 pages.
The MHWC was established in 2022 to independently monitor and report annually on the Victorian government’s progress of implementing the mental health royal commission’s recommendations. It was headed by four commissioners, including two with lived experience.
Work on its latest report was led by Brebner during 2025 before being reviewed by the watchdog’s full team of commissioners and the CEO.
The commission briefed the Department of Health about its findings in November 2025, and asked for a government response so it could be included in the document before its potential publication in December or January.
Two sources familiar with those discussions said Brebner and her team grew frustrated at the government’s refusal to provide a response,and agitated to release the report without one, but were blocked by the then commission chair Maggie Toko.
On December 4, 2025, the government introduced to parliament a controversial bill to overhaul the commission’s leadership and limit it’s investigative remit – in contravention of the royal commission’s recommendation – paving the way to replace the four independent commissioners with a single commissioner.
A fortnight later, on December 16, the MHWC report was sent to staff and key stakeholders to brief them ahead of an possible January release, which was then repeatedly delayed.
Brebner, fellow commissioners and MHWC staff continued to push for the report’s release up to April 27, when the legislative changes came into effect and their positions were eliminated. Toko was appointed interim Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissioner by Stitt.
Footnotes in the published report show that just one day later the Department of Health provided the MHWC with a raft of “authorised information”, allowing for the document’s redrafting.
Some of those familiar the original MHWC’s original independent assessments said they were shocked at the extent of changes when the implementation status update was finally released on June 24.
A comparison of the documents shows while the original report assigned five possible status ratings for progress on each of the royal commission’s 270 sub-recommendations, the published report cut that to just three.
That included the removal of a category titled “limited evidence of progress available publicly”, which had been assigned to 32 cases where no evidence of work being undertaken, other than press releases and other announcements, could be found.
Another rating category, “to be assessed later”, was also deleted. It had been given to 26 sub-recommendations in the original report, where the commissioners deemed new programs were too fresh to be assessed in a meaningful way.
The changes left three wider ratings remaining – Not Yet Commenced; Partial Progress; and In Place – and saw at least 75 grades from the original report improved in the one published June.
Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said the commission had been established to hold government and service providers to account.
“The claims that the government re-wrote and delayed a critical report assessing the government’s performance on mental health is a blow for transparency and accountability,” he said.
“Under the legislation the commission is meant to act as an independent body. This means being free from government interference.”
“Good government requires independent advice, scrutiny, and accountability. Yet the Labor government has long engaged in the politicisation of the public service, and independent bodies like the commission, which only weakens democracy.”
When asked why its assessments changed, the MHWC told The Age that its December 2025 version was “an early, incomplete draft” that had “gaps or inaccuracies” because it had not been provided with departmental information, and was not approved for release at that stage.
It said the report was updated when the department’s response was provided, and this information “informed, but did not determine” its findings.
“At the halfway point of the 10-year mental health reform agenda, the commission sought to highlight both – the progress to date in delivering on recommendations since the royal commission, as well as to highlight the important work still ahead, with detail, accuracy and balance,” Interim Commissioner Maggie Toko said.
”It is important that the commission’s reporting provide the community and all stakeholders with an accurate and comprehensive view on the status of the implementation of the recommendations for mental health reform, that conveys the progress to date, and a sense of optimism and continued commitment towards the ongoing work in improving outcomes into the future.”
The Department of Health said it had been provided with a draft of the MHWC’s report at the end of 2025, and provided “factual and technical feedback” between December 2025 and May 2026 to ensure it had up-to-date information.
“The MHWC is an independent statutory authority – it is responsible for its own reports, findings and assessments, including decisions about content and publication dates,” a department spokesperson said.
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