Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a society, it is important that we acknowledge World Mental Health Day and indeed World Mental Health Week, to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues and to encourage those struggling with mental illness that they are not alone and that they are supported by their community and this federal parliament. Today I hope we can encourage people struggling with mental illness to talk about it and seek professional help—to not give up but rather to hope for brighter days, weeks, months and years ahead.

I rise today, on World Mental Health Day, to talk about something very close to the heart of my electorate of Canning, and that is suicide. Tragically, over the past year there have been eight youth suicides in Canning and the surrounding areas that have left our communities sad and desperate for answers. Two of these students were from the same high school. My electorate of Canning, a beautiful and vibrant part of Western Australia, has the third-highest suicide rate of all the federal electorates in this parliament.

Every human life has innate worth and dignity. Every Australian is special and unique because of that innate worth and dignity, and so every suicide is a tragedy. I am proud of my local community and my government and the way they have sought to bring positive change. The support of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Assistant Minister for Rural Health and the rest of my coalition colleagues has been superb and timely.

I am particularly proud of my local mental health leaders in Canning. I have spoken numerous times in parliament about the Peel Youth Medical Service, or PYMS, and the invaluable service it provides to 400 young people a month in the Peel region, under the direction of Amanda Poller and Eleanor Britton. Of these 400 people, 40 per cent have mental health issues. Prior to the recent spate of youth suicides in Canning, Amanda and Eleanor informed me that there was an increasing demand for physical and mental health that PYMS was struggling to meet, despite its best efforts and the wonderful grassroots support of the local Peel community. The recent suicides underscore the need for more support.

In April, the Prime Minister and the health minister met with a delegation of local students, local and state government leaders, youth representatives and PYMS to ask how the government could help the community deal with the suicide problem. As a group, we collectively asked for funding for the PYMS health hub, a project that will see PYMS expand its services and outreach programs to more young people in need. I am proud to say that PYMS has just received confirmation of the coalition's $2 million contribution towards the PYMS health hub. I thank the Prime Minister and the health minister for their commitment.

During the election, the coalition also announced that it would be committing an additional $192 million to support mental health reform, including suicide prevention strategies. These reforms include $26 million for 10 PHN lead sites, with an additional $7 million for four PHN lead sites focused on suicide prevention to be champions of mental health reform. Perth South PHN, which covers Canning, is one of those four lead sites. Further, the reforms also include $24 million for eight suicide prevention trial sites—a total of 12 suicide prevention sites—and guaranteed funding for headspace. In addition to that, they have also committed $20 million for an additional 10 headspace centres, bringing the total to 110, with a focus on additional services in rural and regional areas. There is also a $30 million commitment for 21st century digital technologies to support mental health reforms as well as $2.5 million for Lifeline to trial a crisis text service.

These reforms are clear evidence of the coalition government's leadership on suicide prevention. But it is not just the government that is taking action to prevent suicides in Canning. The Mandurah Mustangs football and netball club has just announced a formal partnership with headspace in response to the youth suicides in the region. One of those suicide victims was a member of the junior football club. This unique partnership is the first of its kind and is designed to bring mental health services into the lives of those who need it by housing Mandurah's first headspace office in the Mustang's new clubrooms. Young sports men and women will have help where they are comfortable to receive it. While this project is still in its very early stages, it has widespread local support and I look forward to the opening of the coalition's Building Better Regions Fund in the hope that we can help to get this project off the ground with additional funding. To that end, I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Canning community to deliver on all these reforms. On this day, I endorse what the government is doing in mental health services and suicide prevention.

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