Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also congratulate the member for Grey. I commend him for bringing on this motion. It's a very important issue. Suicide prevention is an issue that we all, irrespective of our political colours, clearly feel strongly about. It's vital that we continue to work together to ensure the various programs and initiatives started and funded by governments—your government or our government; it doesn’t matter whose—continue to receive bipartisan and even tripartisan support so that they don't get bogged down in the usual stuff and nonsense that can occur in this place.

Suicide causes enormous anguish to many people, families and communities. In rising to speak I, firstly, would like to express my sympathy and condolences to anyone who has been affected by the suicide of another person. It is the leading cause of death in Australia for persons aged between 15 and 44. Few would know that men aged 85 and above in regional Tasmania are actually the most at-risk group in all of the country, with suicide rates three times the national average. Tasmania has the second-highest rate of suicide in Australia, with 17 deaths per 100,000 people. Tasmania is, sadly, the only state in Australia where the rate is rising. Forty per cent of Tasmanians who access mental health services live in rural communities and regional areas, which is the subject of this motion.

I do commend the member for Murray for saying what I think a lot of us feel—that is, there's a lot of focus on suicide prevention in the cities and the suburbs, which is where a lot of the population lives, but the rates are so much higher in regional and rural Australia. There's this view of the heroic farmer who just takes all that life can give them—everything that happens on the land; the droughts, the floods—that there's a sort of stoic individualism and they just rise above it all. Well, they don't. They need help. The pressures, the financial pressures, that farmers and their families in particular feel when times are tough are just immeasurable. These are people who don't go out and seek help; they try and bottle it up. They try to do it all by themselves, and they're the people who most need assistance.

Preventing suicide is difficult, and causes great aguish for family members and friends who try to keep their loved ones alive and well. More investment is needed in our mental and general health services, particularly in preventative health services. I don't think enough attention is given by the medical fraternity to preventative health, which keeps people socially connected and keeps people emotionally healthy. The importance of community programs, such as recreation and sporting activities, cannot be discounted; however, they are often siloed: 'That's not a health issue. We'll let the local council deal with that. We'll let the local council fund that.' Well, the local council doesn't always have the money. We need to treat these things as health issues. Getting the local community bus out to the old folk who need assistance, because they live miles away, and taking them to the local community centre keeps those folk socially connected. It keeps them emotionally well. I think we need to look more broadly at what constitutes good health in our regional communities.

Tasmania is one of 12 sites around the country taking part in the suicide prevention trials. These were a recommendation of the National Mental Health Commission prior to the last election. I'm pleased to say those recommendations enjoyed bipartisan support. These trials would have occurred under a Labor government as well. And this is the importance of this issue that we all come together. I'm pleased to see that the federal government has provided $3 million for the trial in Tasmania, which will run to 2020. The focus in northern Tasmania is on men aged 40 to 64 and women over 65, which is very important. I am disappointed, I must say, that there hasn't been the focus on young people that I would like to have seen. In the last couple of years there has been an unfortunately termed 'cluster' in Break O'Day Council of young people taking their own lives, and I would have liked to have seen some focus on that, but we'll see in the future.

Before I wrap up, the Rural Alive and Well Program just does such important work in this area, including outreach work. It goes out to farmers and regional families and helps on the ground. It's a very important organisation, and it must be funded into the future and not have its funding cut. (Time expired)

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