FOUR in five Australians say they want the federal government to invest more money tackling the health and social issues that impact men, such as mental health and male suicide.

According to a new report, published to mark Men’s Health Week (June 14-20), 78 per cent of men and 80 per cent of women say the government should spend more on programs that support men.

Glen Poole, CEO of the Australian Men’s Health Forum, the charity behind the research, said: “No-one wants to see money taken away from vital services for women, but the current practice of funding women’s health to the exclusion of men’s health, falls short of the ‘fair share’ approach to government funding that most Australians want and expect.

“Men in Australia die six years younger than women on average and account for four in five heart deaths under 65; three in four suicides; and two in three preventable deaths.

“Men are disproportionately impacted by a number of gender health gaps, but we continue to invest more time, money and resources into improving women’s health.”

He said the findings followed the recent Federal Budget, when the government announced a $3.4 billion Women’s Budget, which included an allocation of $535.8 million to focus on the five  priority areas identified in the National Women’s Health

There were four key areas of funding where men’s health came a poor second:

• Women’s health receives five times more research funding than men’s health
• Nine in 10 people who benefit from government-funded cancer screening are women
• The National Women’s Health Strategy which received more than $500 million in the Federal budget, compared to zero funding for National Men’s Health Strategy
• Suicide, where up four in five beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded prevention programs are women