Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for his question. This year's budget delivers on the Prime Minister's commitment to make mental health reform a priority for this term of government. The budget delivers the largest mental health package ever with $2.2 billion worth of new measures delivered over five years. The government is moving quickly to roll out some of these measures.

Last week, I was pleased to announce that mobile phone calls to Lifeline made from anywhere in Australia will now be free of charge, thanks to an agreement between the Australian government and the three major mobile carriers—delivering a key election commitment made by the government last year. Around one-third of the 450,000 calls that Lifeline receives every year are made from mobiles. The average call to Lifeline lasts around 20 minutes and obviously some of the calls from more distressed people last significantly longer. This is a significant cost to Australians in crisis who often are also suffering financially.

Many people calling Lifeline would be on prepaid mobile plans. The last thing any of us want is to be cut off in the middle of what might be a life-saving telephone convers­ation with a Lifeline counsellor. I want to place on record the government's gratitude to the three carriers and their representatives for their cooperation on this measure—not only for the technical changes which needed to be made but also for them bearing a share of forgone revenue along with the significant compensation payments the government will be making to them. This measure undoub­tedly will save lives.

Last week I announced that up to $4 million will be invested to establish a new national mental health consumer organis­ation. The new organisation will be hosted initially by the Consumers Health Forum, CHF, and will ensure that the voice of mental health consumers is heard loudly and clearly as the government delivers on mental health reform.

Funding has become available for divisions of general practice and ultimately Medicare Locals to provide crisis counse­lling on an emergency basis for people who are referred by their GP or from emergency departments and are at risk of suicide. Divisions are also receiving a substantial increase in their base-level funding for psychological services targeted particularly to people on low incomes and to people in rural and remote Australia. Headspace services across the country now qualify for huge increases in their core funding, allowing them to expand services like outreach to schools and to homeless youths. Having recently announced providers for 10 new services, expressions of interest will be sought over the next several months for the next tranche of 15 new headspaces.

A number of initiatives from the Prime Minister's taking action to tackle suicide package also became available last Friday including funding for preventative infrastru­cture at suicide hotspots, funding for an outreach service to schools affected by suicide, recognising tragically that still two or three high school students die by suicide every week, raising the risk of copycat attempts at those school communities, and also, funding for community led suicide prevention initiatives with a particular focus on Indigenous communities, which we know are at higher risk.

This reform package is comprehensive, balanced and targeted across the lifespan. It will make a meaningful difference to the many tens of thousands of Australians living with mental illness and their families.

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