Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Whilst we do have bipartisanship in this place to deal with the very serious issue of suicide prevention, particularly given the suicide data and statistics for Australia at the present, that does not mean that we will not hold the government to account. We did see $115 million for mental health in the budget, but, whilst we welcome that, we are concerned that it is not enough.

I was interested to hear the minister's answer earlier when he talked about the $80 million that the government has committed to those people who are currently receiving psychosocial services and who will fall outside of the NDIS. I particularly liked the minister's comment that if these people do not get services their conditions will worsen if the services are not there. That is very, very true, which is why we are very concerned that this $80 million, even if it is matched by the states, assuming the states do match it, will still not be enough for those people who have serious mental ill health and who are at the moment relying on services in wonderful programs like Personal Helpers and Mentors, day to day living and Partners in Recovery. They are great programs that are working very, very well and people are getting the supports they need, but we are very concerned, and I know that people in the sector concerned, that this $80 million will not be enough. Indeed, when we asked the National Mental Health Commission's CEO, Peggy Brown, about that in Senate estimates this week, she said that the $80 million was a starting point. She went on to say that $80 million is not a lot, that it is not going to buy all of the psychosocial disability that is required.

So we have a mental health expert in Dr Brown saying that this $80 million is not enough, even if it is matched by the states, and we do not know where the $80 million came from. I ask the minister, genuinely: Can you tell us where the $80 million comes from? Where is the analysis? Where is the data? Where are the reports or whatever it is that led you to come up with this $80 million? Where did the number come from? We need to know where this $80 million figure has come from, because we need to understand the number of people who will be outside the NDIS and who are going to rely on these services, because we need to make sure that the services are there. As the minister himself has said, conditions worsen if these services are not there. There are already too many gaps in the mental health services system. Already, we know, too many people are falling through the system. Already, we know, people cannot get the supports they need in time. We need to know whether this $80 million is enough or not.

The other thing I want to ask the minister is: why are you drip feeding out the headspace site announcements? It was clear from Senate estimates that the minister was given a list of 20 headspace sites to pick from, and that he has made a decision on 10. We have had three of those were announced to date, which we welcomed—Grafton, Whyalla and Mandurah—but I am concerned about where the other seven are. When are they going to be rolled out? Are they going to be drip fed at one a month? When is this going to happen? The first one was announced in February. I would hate to think that the minister is sitting on the other seven announcements from February and is going to drip them out rather than announce them all at once. We do know that there are some coming soon, but we need these services up and operating as quickly as possible, and I am sure the minister agrees. There are many members in this place who appreciate the valuable work that headspace does in local communities. It does great work in local communities, but we also know that there is a need for headspace services in other communities. We also know that many headspace sites still have waiting lists, significant waiting lists in some places. I ask the minister: Realistically, when will the rest of the sites be announced?

Is there any analysis being done of where further sites are required? Are we sure that the waiting lists and the needs of the current headspaces are being met, because I am hearing serious concerns from people that there are waiting lists and people are going to headspace services and they are not getting the support they need?

Headspaces were originally designed for people with mild depression and anxiety. I understand that, because of the gaps in services, headspaces are actually dealing with people who have much more severe mental ill health than they were designed to deal with. They are doing a good job of coping with what is coming through their door but the resources available to them and the gaps in the system are serious issues. In that bipartisan manner, Minister, when are we going to hear the other headspaces? Do we know about the waiting lists in the other headspaces? What is being done?

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