Former health minister Greg Hunt has stepped down as chair of the group, but not before calling on the government to implement mandatory telehealth regulations.
The Telehealth Sector Working Group has issued a new missive urging the Australian Digital Health Agency to work with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing on mandating certain telehealth standards … namely, its own.
Despite its quasi-official sounding name, the Telehealth Sector Working Group (TSWG) is not to be confused with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing-commissioned Telehealth Working Group.
Rather, it is made up of representatives from groups like Rare Cancers Australia, the Consumers Health Forum of Australia and the Medical Software Industry Association.
Medicinal cannabis giant Montu – which owns telehealth clinic Alternaleaf, distribution company Leafio and also produces six different brands of cannabis products – spearheads the working group, which announced its presence to the world in May 2025.
To date, its main body of work has been its “CARE” principles for telehealth. These cover four elements: clinical care, administrative operations, resourcing and ethical standards.
Former health minister Greg Hunt has served as the TSWG’s inaugural independent chair.
In the group’s latest report, which is dated January 2026 and was posted to LinkedIn by Mr Hunt last week, the immediate past health minister announced that he was concluding his tenure as chair.
“While this report makes a number of vital recommendations, I must draw attention to the primary recommendation, government regulatory intervention,” Mr Hunt wrote in the foreword.
“The TSWG has demonstrated that leading organisations within the sector have a deep commitment to clinical governance and raising a high bar. There remain organisations who do not share this commitment and remain resistant to improvement.
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“Unfortunately, I see that only mandatory regulations, led by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing or the Australian Digital Health Agency, such as expanding the scope of My Health Record’s sharing by defult previsions [sic], will drive change within these organisations.”
He also cited “resistance from laggards” as holding telehealth in Australia back from evolving in line with emerging opportunities, evidence and best practice.
The report itself, which ostensibly lays out an implementation matrix for its CARE telehealth standards also contains four recommendations.
These are: government intervention (as discussed above), a stratified implementation of CARE principles for telehealth providers of varying size and maturity, collaboration between government and the TSWG, and “encouraging ongoing sector leadership and engagement”.
It is unclear whether the intended audience for these recommendations is the government or the working group itself.
