There is something sobering about watching a country invest nearly £14 million to re-examine what the international evidence base has already established. Australia's latest research adds to a substantial global body of work showing that gender-affirming care improves mental health outcomes and reduces the burden on mental health services. This is not new territory.
The question many of us are asking is not whether the evidence supports gender-affirming care—it does, consistently, across multiple rigorous studies. The question is why we continue to commission expensive reviews of the same ground, rather than investing those resources into implementation, training, and equitable access to care for the people who need it most.