Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Each year on 13 September, Australians mark R U OK? Day, a national awareness day of action. Gavin Larkin created R U OK? Day in 2009, prompted to action by the grief and devastation of his own father, Barry Larkin's suicide. Sadly, Gavin passed away due to cancer a few years back, but the incredible legacy of his vision, RU OK? Day, lives on. It continues to have an enormous impact in our communities and almost certainly has played a role in saving countless lives.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of R U OK? Day, and that's a lot of conversations that have been started because of this campaign. I remember well when the Convo Convoy rolled into Brisbane last year. I was impressed by such a great community event and had such genuine, deep and authentic grassroots community involvement.

The ultimate vision of the campaign is to encourage meaningful conversations with loved ones, workmates, friends and neighbours, not just on R U OK? Day but 365 days a year. It's something that we can all do to help people stay connected, to reach out to those around us, and to show kindness and compassion. A simple conversation, truly caring, can have a profound impact on people battling depression, social isolation, loneliness and other mental health challenges.

Suicide is a terrible blight on the Australian community. It accounted for almost 3,000 deaths recorded in 2016—that's seven or eight Australians taking their own lives each and every day of the year. That makes suicide the 15th leading cause of death in 2016, and tragically that ranking's not atypical. Of course, it's a much higher ranking than that for some younger age demographics.

The Australian government is providing funding for R U OK? Day and has done since its inception. Last week, the Minister for Health announced an additional three-quarters of a million dollars on top of the almost $1 million a year that the federal government has already been providing. Going one step higher in the budget priorities, in this year's budget, the government invested over $300 million for mental health programs, including over $70 million for suicide prevention. This government's total expenditure for mental health is $4.3 billion this financial year, and that means that there has never been a government in Australia's history that has provided so much funding towards our nation's mental health.

But there's always more to be done to reduce the impact and the burden of mental illness in Australia. Ultimately, it comes back to the community and to the actions of individuals who can have the most immediate impact on the ground, as exemplified by people stopping to check on each other, start a conversation and ask the simple question, 'Are you okay?'

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