Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In September last year I delivered my maiden speech in the House of Representatives and I spoke on that occasion about my father's death by suicide some 20 years ago. Suicide is one of the great challenges that Australia faces. The most recent statistics we have show that over 3,000 people died by suicide in 2015—that is roughly eight people a day and 100 people in my electorate over recent years. There was nothing unique about my speech, in that in a number of the maiden speeches delivered by the class of 2016 on both sides of the House people talked about the way in which mental illness, mental health, depression and suicide had affected their families and their communities. I think that underscores what an enormous national challenge this is for our country.

Suicide is by virtue of the subject matter a very dark topic, but subsequent to my maiden speech I found that prevention of suicide is something that elicits great hope right across the community. I have been humbled by the thousands of people who have contacted me to share their stories and the organisations that have been in touch to tell me some of the work they are doing. I want to share with the House a couple of stories people have told me. A fellow travelled from interstate just to see me and tell me about his worries about his son. This gentleman, whose father had died by suicide and whose son had recently attempted suicide—fortunately, he was unsuccessful—wanted to know what could be done to help him.

Another person who saw me told me their frightening story of having interrupted a family member in the process of taking their own life. That was a searing experience for that person. There was a person whose daughter had been going through issues with eating disorders. That had brought on an episode of depression and that person had contemplated suicide. That experience was turned around to good, as he focused on ways in which he could use some of his professional skills to help prevent suicide in his own industry.

One lovely thing about this space is the way in which trying to find answers to some of these questions prompts individual action. The mental health and suicide prevention space is very Victorian Britain in its outlook. There are, I am told, in the order of 35,000 organisations in this space across the country, from very large organisations, like Lifeline, the Black Dog Institute and beyondblue, through to small organisations, which were often set up in memory of a relative or the result of a personal experience people have had. In that respect I should acknowledge my friend the member for Eden-Monaro, who, along with me, is a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention. I have to say on this particular topic there is great bipartisan goodwill across the House. I have been interested in hearing some of the things that organisations are doing in this space and some of the good thinking that is going on in academic areas. I met the distinguished historian Colin Tatz, who reminds us that suicide prevention is not merely a health issue; it is also an issue of what building blocks you can put in society.

I ran a very interesting forum with the life insurance industry because I continually heard stories of people not having insurance policies paid out where somebody died by suicide and stories of a spike after the 13th month, when somebody could qualify to take out life insurance policies. I am pleased to report to the House that it is not true that life insurance organisations do not pay out in the event of a suicide, but the evidence at the moment is inconclusive in relation to the 13 months. KPMG in particular is looking at that issue to see what evidence and information can be drawn.

One of the important things in this space is that, if people understand and notice the signs and see somebody is contemplating suicide, they know what to do. In the construction industry, I was pleased to attend a course run by MATES in Construction that focuses on that particular industry. On Monday at Gordon a group of us—me along with the member for North Sydney, the member for Bennelong and some of our state colleagues and local mayors—are participating in the Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury safe talks program to inform members of parliament better what can be done to prevent suicide.

Minister, there have been lots of people involved in steering the portfolio in this space, but there is a particular appreciation of the hard work you have done since being the minister. I would like you to outline to the House what is in the budget for suicide prevention.

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