Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

What I think I might do in view of the time—I trust that the parliamentary secretary is going to answer the remainder of those questions, because they are of importance—is, whilst we are on the mental health topic, put some additional questions to the parliamentary secretary. Perhaps in the next five minutes he can conclude his previous answer and ensure that these questions are answered too. The parliamentary secretary made reference to the web linked services and the call centre services in the mental health budget appropriations. I ask the parliamentary secretary: what proportion of the total Lifeline budget is now supported by government funds? What proportion of the total Kids Help Line budget is supported by government funds? How will the services provided by these two agencies be linked to the mental health services to be provided as part of the National Health Call Centre Network? Is there going to be integration of those services or not?

When the parliamentary secretary refers to web based support programs, is he aware that there has been previous funding given to a successful web based support program known as depressioNet? Why is there no inclusion of a continuation of this initiative, given the desire for web based support programs for people with mental illness and that this has been a successful one? Will there be any initiatives that would link depressioNet, a current and successful initiative, to the new system?

On the question of the new mental health workforce, which the parliamentary secretary has also referred to, there is funding, as he would be aware, for new mental health nurse places and new clinical psychologist places. There is also a reference to full-time and part-time postgraduate scholarships for nurses and psychologists. Can he give us the breakdown of what funding will be directed to scholarships for nurses as opposed to the funding that will be directed to scholarships for psychologists? As he would be aware, the scholarship initiative is just bundled together. Given the significant educational costs faced by those who do not access scholarships—the parliamentary secretary is aware that the cost for someone who seeks to be a mental health nurse, given mental health nursing is a postgraduate course, is in the order of $50,000 a year and in the order of $20,000 a year for a person who seeks to be a psychologist—how many scholarships are going to be provided in each category and how many places, therefore, will be left without the benefit of a scholarship, leaving people to face those sorts of costs in order to access the course?

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