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Leading Reform Summit 2026
25–26 May | InterContinental Brisbane

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Summit program

We've got a thought-provoking and engaging program lined up for you - take a look below! Please note the program and timings are subject to change.

Summit Day 1 - Monday 25 May 2026

 

Time Item Topic Speaker/s Description
From 8.00am (coffee cart begins at 7.30)  Registration opens  

OPENING

8.45am  Welcome to delegates Welcome to Country Turrbal Dippil   Delivered by Traditional Owners
8.55am Housekeeping Welcome and housekeeping
  • MC: Irene Clelland, Arafmi

  • MC: Bretine Curtis, QMHC 

MC introductions and housekeeping

9.10am  Address Lived experience address
  • Michelle Sanders, QMHC

  • Craig Worland, Queensland Health

Grounding the Summit in lived experience

 SESSION 1 - STATE OF THE STATE 
9.25am Keynote Address Ministerial opening address   Hon. Tim Nicholls, Minister for Health and Ambulance Services  The Queensland Government’s reform vision
9.35am Address Commissioner's opening address Ivan Frkovic, QMHC Commissioner   Looking back / Looking forward
9.45am Address Presentation: Productivity Commission Review  Selwyn Button, Productivity Commission

National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Review findings and opportunities.

10am Address Presentation: QAO audit findings  Darren Brown, Queensland Assistant Auditor-General   Implications for governance, transparency, and shared accountability.
 MORNING TEA AT 10.25AM
10.45am Panel The 2026 reform landscape: positioning Queensland for the future
  • Selwyn Button, Productivity Commission

  • John Reilly, Queensland Health

  • Mary Williams, Belmont Private Hospital

  • Chloe Jesson, Queensland Alliance for Mental Health

  • Lisa Gott, Flourish Australia
  • Dr Jeremy Hayllar, Metro North

What must Queensland build, strengthen or reshape in state and national reform settings to build a (mental health, AOD and suicide prevention) system that works for our people and places?  

 SESSION 2 - SYSTEM DESIGN  
11.45am Panel System design that starts with people, place and partnerships  
  • Fiona Caniglia, Q Shelter  

  • Genevieve Sinclair, Yeti

  • Sue Andrews, Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service 

  • Sarah Haigh, Office for Social Impact

  • Donata Sackey, Multicultural Health Working Group

  • Sue Goodwin, Arafmi
 

What (mental health, AOD and suicide prevention) system design assumptions must change if we want to strengthen community leadership and design reform that works where people are born, live, work, play and age? What happens when the system is designed at a distance, and what happens when it isn’t? What design shift is needed to ensure reform reflects the people and places it serves?

 LUNCH AT 12.40PM
 
DAY 1 SHOWCASES: Orygen 'MIND' VR, FASD Tracking Cube Project, CORTA Research Plan & Testimony Arts
 
 SESSION 3 - WHERE DO WE NEED TO GO?   
1.40pm Lightning Presentations What if we started from wellbeing?  
  • Professor JR Baker, Australian Social Prescribing Institute of Research and Education  

  • Dr Katherine Trebeck, The Next Economy & University of Edinburgh and Australian National University 

  • Dr Jeop van Agteren, Be Well Co  

  • Tanja Hirvonen, CEO, Thirrili
Despite decades of investment, Queensland’s (mental health, AOD and suicide prevention) system remains crisis-weighted, siloed, and overly service-led, and is still not designed around outcomes that matter to people and communities. This Futures focused session invites participants to hear from innovative speakers and step beyond current portfolios, programs, and constraints and consider what a wellbeing-centred system could look like.  
2.35pm  Lifetime Achievement Awards 

  AFTERNOON TEA AT 3.10PM

3.30pm Panel exercise Commissioning Under Pressure: A Live Reform Simulation 
 
  • Dr Katherine Trebeck, The Next Economy & University of Edinburgh and Australian National University

  • Dr Jeop van Agteren, Be Well Co  

  • Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Australian Institute of Health Innovation – Macquarie University
     
  • Tanja Hirvonen, CEO, Thirrili

  • Anna Daglish, Family Drug Support
  • Bronwen Edwards, Roses in the Ocean
 
4.25pm Closing Remarks Commissioner's Day 1 closing reflections Ivan Frkovic, QMHC      Commissioner    What we heard?

Why it matters?

What do we carry into Day 2?

The work ahead? 

 

Summit Day 2 - Tuesday 26 May 2026

 

Time Item Topic Speaker/s Description
7.30am Keynote discussion & networking breakfast  
Keynote breakfast
  • Georgie Harman AO, CEO Beyond Blue

  • Ivan Frkovic, QMHC Commissioner 

Keynote presentation from Beyond Blue CEO, Georgie Harman AO, followed by a conversation with outgoing Commissioner Ivan Frkovic, focused on looking back and looking forward including the challenges, strengths and future focus for a national organisation responsible for driving population wide mental health support.

 SESSION 4 - PUTTING INTO ACTION - FUTURE REFORM 
9.00am Opening remarks Welcome back and introduction for the day
  • MC: Irene Clelland, Arafmi

  • MC: Bretine Curtis, QMHC 

  • What we’re solving today

  • Reflect on Day 1’s future system signals

  • Day 2 purpose

9.05am Keynote address Looking back and looking forward: The role of funding in driving reform  Dr Stephen Duckett, University of Melbourne  In this keynote address, renowned health economist Dr Stephen Duckett will encompass the Summit’s key theme ‘looking back, looking forward’ and consider what funding as a crucial lever for system reform, has and hasn’t achieved and what needs to happen to move the dial forward. 
9.30am  Keynote address 
Implementing evidence-based mental health care at scale   Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, Australian Institute of Health Innovation – Macquarie University 

In this keynote address, Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite will explore why proven interventions fail to spread and how to fix it. This includes touching on: bridging the research-to-practice gap in mental health, scaling community and digital interventions and addressing barriers in complex health systems.

9.55am Panel Young people’s voices: what a future Queensland system must deliver  
  • Miles Britton
  • Abi Cooper
  • Bengallah Wright
  • Abigael Hunt
  • Akanksha Sharma

Convenor: Luke Twyford, QFCC Principal Commissioner  

This session centres the voices of young people to define what a future-ready system must deliver for them. It defines what “good” looks like for those who will depend most on future reforms, and what is needed to truly support the next generation.  

MORNING TEA AT 10.45AM

DAY 2 SHOWCASES: Everywhen A&TSI LLE Workforce Framework, University of Queensland Mindfulness App, QuIVAA AOD LLE Workforce Framework

 SESSION 5 - REFORM LABS 
11.10am Workshop

Reform Lab 1: data, outcomes and accountability

Presenter: Associate Professor Nicola Warren, QMCHR

This lab examines how Queensland can measure whether the system is delivering what truly matters. It focuses on defining a minimum viable outcome set for a wellbeing-centred system, the data and transparency infrastructure needed to track progress across portfolios, and governance arrangements that ensure accountability to people, communities, and lived experience. The emphasis is on outcome-driven accountability, not activity reporting

11.40am  Workshop 

Reform Lab 2: governance and stewardship across the systems

Presenter: Simon Katterl, MHLEPQ

This lab focuses on the governance and stewardship arrangements that would create an authorising environment capable of delivering the wellbeing-centred, community-anchored system. It explores how decision-making, accountability, oversight and cross-portfolio alignment must evolve to drive real reform across mental health, AOD and suicide prevention. 
12.10pm  Workshop  Reform Lab 3: workforce and community capability  
 Bretine Curtis, QMHC  This lab explores how Queensland can build the workforce and community capabilities needed for a wellbeing-centred, culturally safe, and community-anchored system. Focusing on the next decade, it highlights peer leadership, cultural capability, community-led roles, and integrated MHAODSP, while examining the structural conditions, regional supports, and incentives required to embed these capabilities at scale. 
12.40pm  Summarising address MC Wrap up
  • MC: Irene Clelland, Arafmi   

  •  MC: Bretine Curtis, QMHC  

Highlighting what we've heard and how we'll share post Summit

 CLOSING 
12.50pm Closing address Closing remarks: lived-living experience 
  •  Michelle Sanders, QMHC

  • Craig Worland, Queensland Health

Lived experience closing remarks 

1.05pm Closing address Commissioner's closing address Ivan Frkovic, QMHC Commissioner   Final remarks and final speech from the Commissioner  
1.25pm Commissioner Acknowledgement  Commission and sector thanks to the outgoing Commissioner     
 LUNCH AND NETWORKING AT 1.30PM
 END OF SUMMIT AT 3PM