Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for his question. He has firsthand understanding of the unspeakably traumatic time that his constituents have gone through, and of course so many other Victorian families. For so many they have lost everything—parents, children, friends, neighbours—and their lives have certainly been shattered. It is going to take a very long time for them to overcome the grief and loss and dislocation from these fires. The Leader of the Opposition and the member for McEwen spoke of this eloquently yesterday.

I want to inform the House that we are working very closely with the Victorian government, in particular their Department of Human Services, putting counsellors, social workers and case managers into the fire affected communities. Centrelink has 88 professional staff in the field already, made up of 39 social workers and 49 case managers. This is an initiative which both the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria have been very keen to see put in place quickly. We want each fire survivor to be assigned a case manager to give them one-on-one assistance and to connect them with services, and that will include both counselling and psychological support. From next Monday, we expect to have 80 case managers in the field. That is really all about making sure that people get the support that they need.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, I am pleased to say, has announced that there will be a boost to mental health support for fire victims. She has announced $7½ million extra for primary health services, support and training for professionals, increased counselling services through Lifeline and Kids Help Line, and support for local organisations to help their communities both reconnect and psychologically recover. In addition, we have provided extra money to five family relationship service providers. Each have received $40,000 extra to deliver counselling in the Bendigo area, Seymour, the Healesville and Yarra Junction area up in the north-east, and the areas around Churchill and Bunyip.

I think we can all imagine just how difficult it is for families, particularly children. I have heard some horrific cases where parents had to make very difficult split-second decisions about whether to leave with their children or to put them in the care of others while they stay and fight for their homes. Some children have seen horrific sights away from their parents. It is important that both the children and their parents receive this extra support at this very difficult time. It will be the case that the physical injuries will be healed while the emotional scars take a lot, lot longer for people to recover from. We certainly intend to provide this emotional and psychological support over the long term.

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