Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I was asked about mental health services and I am outlining in detail the additional investment made in the most recent budget—an investment of $175 million. Secondly, I was indicating the additional investment we provided to the Headspace services, which provide additional support for 20,000 young Australians each year. I would have thought, given the nature of the question, that that may have been of interest to the House.

Furthermore, we are providing $58.5 million over four years to be directed to deliver care packages to better support up to 25,000 people with severe mental illnesses through the access to allied psychological services arrangements. Thirdly, we are investing $25.5 million over four years to expand the Early Psychosis Prevention Intervention Centre—otherwise called EPPIC—model, building on its successful implementation in the state of Victoria. Fourthly, there is $13 million over two years to employ an additional 136 mental health nurses to provide an estimated 11,700 additional services. As I said, that reflects the government’s additional investments in this area so far.

I also draw the House’s attention to the additional investments we are making overall in the training of medical students in the future and to their training places within the hospitals. The government’s plan is to increase the overall number of GP training places by 5½ thousand over the decade ahead and to increase the overall number of training places in a given year—doubling it, I think, to about 1,300 a year, starting a year or two into the future. Additional medical staff around the country will assist in the wider provision of general health services, including necessary referrals for specialist mental health services as well.

We regard this as an important area of priority in the overall health reform agenda. We have, with the states and territories, engaged in a substantive negotiation on the reform of the health and hospital system. We have produced a reform for the National Health and Hospitals Network. In that system, for the first time, the Australian government will become the dominant funder of the public hospital system of Australia and the dominant funder of the recurrent costs of that system as well. That system also provides a range of services for those suffering from a range of mental health conditions.

On top of that we have fully recognised—and I have said this in previous debates—that when it comes to further priorities for reform we have to place more emphasis on outstanding areas of demand in mental health on the one hand, and aged care on the other. Those constitute the collective priorities of the government. We have made a good start with the National Health and Hospitals Network. We have made some start in relation to the priorities for mental health. We intend to address these priorities together with those in aged care in the rolling implementation of our reform program. Better health and better hospitals for the entire Australian community are fundamental priorities for this government. We intend to get on with the business and I simply make this point to the House: our additional investments in this sector account for some $7½ billion over the three years to come in contrast to the $1 billion which was ripped out of the system by the Leader of the Opposition when he was minister for health prior to the last election.

See this speech in context