Australia and New Zealand are world leaders in developing the broader health, welfare, and cultural support systems needed for broad-based mental health and wellbeing. While early intervention in adolescent and young adult groups has been the most visible area of development and debate for the last two or three decades, there is growing recognition of the importance of early experiences for development and health throughout the life span. There has been controversy on how best and how early to start looking for risk factors for later development of mental illness, but there is little resistance to the idea that reducing the stressors and improving the welfare of infants and their families is likely to improve outcomes across all areas of health and wellbeing.