Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for his interest in this subject. I am sure he will assist me if I have overlooked any elements of his question. I am aware of the meeting last Thursday. In fact, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs hosted, arranged and funded the participation of people in that meeting. That has been our process each year because we are very supportive of ProgramASIST. In fact, the Howard government is the government that provided the resources and the commitment to actually see ProgramASIST established. It is a program that we think is important. It helps to build knowledge of suicidal behaviour and build the confidence in people who might come in contact with a member from the veterans community at risk of self-harm. It looks at a number of mental health issues. It encourages people who feel that someone is at risk of self-harm to contact proper mental health professionals and the comprehensive program of support that is offered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for mental health and self-harm concerns.

For the member for Oxley’s information, I am aware that the opposition has made some claim about putting some funding into ProgramASIST. It was an interesting announcement that, I think, was made at the Queensland congress of the RSL. It implied that, even though the call for funding was, I think, $1.6 million over four years, the opposition indicated a willingness to contribute $1 million over four years and implied that the department would need to find the rest from its own resources. That is rather odd because I think earlier in the day there were accusations that the department was cutting back its resources and that there was not enough to do its work. Yet, here, the Labor Party was insisting that some magical $600,000 of help could be found.

One thing that needs to be recognised is that the department has an open-ended willingness to support participation in ProgramASIST. What happens is that the department funds the training scheme. I cannot remember the name of the provider, but the provider of the program does a terrific job. Where there is a veteran member willing to participate in that program, we fund the program participation fees, which are about $200 per attendee. We have developed and distributed a package of ProgramASIST promotional material, and we partner with the veterans community to make sure any willing member of the veterans community keen to participate in this program is able to do so. That is an open-ended, ongoing, multiple-year commitment that the government has made, and that stands. What we have also supported is the work of the coordinating committees with two meetings each year as well as face-to-face meetings and teleconferencing, and ongoing financial and administrative support for the national coordinator. We are very supportive of the program.

What also needs to be recognised is that in 2006-07 there were 56 veterans who participated in this program and we funded their participation. In fact, over the years tens of thousands of dollars have gone towards that. The opposition seems to think there will be thousands and thousands of veterans participating in this program, and that is the assumption on which their funding commitment is made. As if the only constructive thing that the community can do to support veterans at risk is to fund participation in the program when clearly there is not that level of interest. There were 56 participants in the last financial year. We have made an open-ended commitment. If there were 556 participants we would finance that contribution.

But to suggest that it can be fixed by throwing more money at the program—recognising that we have been supportive of it since 2001, that there is not the take-up that we anticipated and that it has the support of all the major veterans organisations who also promote it, yet there is still not the take-up of the program—I think highlights just how unwise it was of the Labor Party to simply stick its sticker onto an email, which I also received from the promoters of this program, and claim it as policy. They did not do the hard work and recognise that self-harm and the mental health and wellness of our veterans community requires a comprehensive strategy, one the department is continually putting in place and improving.

We are working on Operation Life, which is also a comprehensive program that recognises that we need to promote resilience, mental health and wellbeing across the broader veterans community. We need to look at what those protective factors are that reduce risks. We need to involve families and those supportive in addressing self-harm, deliver support through the veterans and veterans’ families counselling service, develop the know-how within the veterans community and continue research. That is the comprehensive strategy that the veterans community is looking for and that is what we are delivering.

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