Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for Grey and his seconder for putting this motion up. It give us an opportunity to ventilate a lot of the issues around the extraordinarily high rates of suicide across this country. I want to start my contribution by just highlighting the extent of people dying from intentional self-harm. In 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that suicide accounted for over one-third of deaths, 35.4 per cent, among 15- to 24-year-old Australians and over a quarter of deaths, 28.6 per cent, among 25- to 30-year-old Australians. For those over 35 to 44, it was 16 per cent.

Significantly though, I note the member for Grey's discussion around the impact of suicide on rural areas. He is right to point that out in relation to people working in the agricultural sector in particular, who clearly have been suffering high suicide rates. But the most prevalent impact of suicide is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across this country. In 2016, 162 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons died as a result of suicide, so the bureau tells us. The standardised death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons is 23.8 deaths per 100,000 persons compared to the rate of 11.4 deaths per 100,000 persons for non-Indigenous Australians. The median age of death by suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons over this period was 29 years, compared with 45 in the non-Indigenous population. So Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are committing suicide at a much younger age. Aboriginal females had a lower median age of death, 26.1, compared to 29.8 for males. This is extraordinary and it gives you a picture of a dynamic which is happening in many communities across Australia. Over the five years from 2012 to 2016, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people between five and 17 years of age accounted for more than a quarter of all suicide deaths in this age group. So, when we contemplate what we're talking about here, it is a catastrophe of huge proportions amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and particularly in remote areas.

The member for Grey talked about the 12 regions selected for trial sites. Two of those are specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. One of them is the Darwin area. I've been attending the committee for these trial sites in the Darwin area, and I'm pleased to do so. The National Suicide Prevention Trial aims to gather evidence on how a systems based approach to suicide prevention can be best undertaken in Australia. I've attended two of the working group discussions in Darwin. Topics discussed included giving greater attention to the zero- to 17-year-old age group. That's supported by the evidence coming from the Bureau of Statistics. Another topic was community control and empowerment grounded in the community based on community needs and accountable to the community. This is of relevance to all of regional Australia, not just Darwin. A further topic was taking a holistic and sustainable approach. We've got to give people confidence that there are ways of preventing self-harm but also dealing with and treating those people who have attempted self-harm.

While I welcome the trial sites, and it's very important that we do, I want to make an observation about a matter which I think is a bit concerning. A health equality plan was developed by us in government and has been adopted by this government. The implementation plan for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-23 has not been funded. This is important: not one single dollar has been put into this implementation plan by the government. The plan addresses issues to do with people involved in mental health and suicide. The complementary National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People's Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing 2017-23 needs an implementation plan and an appropriate levels of funding. It is yet to come. Whilst we're talking about these issues, as well as having cross-party support and bipartisan support across this parliament, we need to make sure that resources are given so that we can make an impact on this dreadful scourge in our society.

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