Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes that:

(1) the R U OK? Conversation Convoy began on 30 July 2018 to raise awareness that a conversation could change a life, and the Convoy will:

(a) travel across 14,000 kilometres and 25 communities to show Australians that every day is the day to ask: Are you Ok?; and

(b) conclude in Sydney on 13 September 2018 which is also R U OK? Day, an important day which was first established in 2009 to raise awareness around suicide prevention and mental ill health;

(2) the statistics around suicide and mental ill health are heartbreaking and confronting:

(a) in 2016, 2,866 Australians lost their lives to suicide;

(b) research reveals that around 65,000 Australians attempt suicide every year and hundreds of thousands of people are impacted by each suicide death; and

(c) one in five Australians experience mental ill health in any year;

(3) all levels of government and the community are urged to work together to reduce the impact of suicide and mental ill health in our society; and

(4) work must continue towards reducing stigma and raising community awareness around suicide prevention and mental ill health.

Many people in this place would be familiar with R U OK? Day. This year's R U OK? Day marks 10 years from when Gavin Larkin first came up with the concept of 'R U OK?', and the Conversation Convoy has been happening for the last few years. They take cars around the country and they go to regional and remote parts of the country as well as the cities and invite people to start the conversation: 'Are you okay?' . Of course, it's one thing to start the conversation 'Are you okay?', but it is, of course, very important to listen. The four simple steps that R U OK Day are seeking are that you ask the question, you listen, you then encourage action if the person is not okay and you check in to make a difference to someone who may not be okay or who you think is behaving differently to their usual behaviour.

This year's convoy travelled over 14,000 kilometres and visited 25 communities, beginning in Geelong and finishing off in Sydney just last week. It visited some of the more remote communities in Australia, as I have mentioned. Indeed, I've been pleased to see it in my home state, although not this year. It was there this year, but I was unable to attend. The previous year, it came to Hobart.

Slowly but surely, initiatives like 'R U OK?' are actually helping to reduce the stigma around mental ill health. They are encouraging people to put up their hand to say, 'I'm not okay,' or, 'I'm struggling, or, 'I need some help.' What's important is that, when we do that, help is available. I know from talking to government members that many people on their side understand that some of this help is not always available and we need to do better, working with our state and local government colleagues and the not-for-profit sector to ensure that we can do that.

Labor has a very proud history when it comes to supporting people with mental ill health. We increased the budget very substantially when we were in government, with $200 million over five years for 30 new headspace centres. I know the current government has also made increases to headspace since coming into office. There is absolute bipartisanship when it comes to dealing with mental ill health and access for people with mental ill health, but it's not an easy task.

Far too many Australians still lose their lives to suicide—indeed, over 2,800 in 2016. That's almost eight a day. We need to do better. It's almost double the national road toll. That's without the attempts of suicide, the number of which is also extraordinarily high. We can and we should do better, and I know that everybody in this place wants to do better. We continue to be inspired by individuals like Gavin Larkin, who created R U OK?, and the current community people but also the corporate sponsors of R U OK? The campaign relies primarily on corporate donations and philanthropy to run the conversation convoy to have these important conversations. I know there are many businesses and businesspeople around Australia today supporting those community not-for-profit organisations that are making a big difference when it comes to mental ill health. We believe that all levels of government should focus on this. It's the role of not just the federal government but the state and local governments and the for-profit and not-for-profit sector.

We have also created recently in this place the Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention. It's now in its second year. Again, there is wonderful bipartisanship, with the member for Berowra, Julian Leeser, and Mike Kelly, the member for Eden-Monaro, on our side, cohosting that parliamentary friends group. It is a really important group that is taking advice and talking to people in the community about what we as members of this place can do further to reduce that terrible suicide number each and every year, because there is so much to be done.

Offering bipartisanship, of course, does not mean that we do not from time to time criticise some of the things we think the government does or doesn't do. One of those was in relation to the suicide prevention trial sites. At the time of the last election, Labor had a commitment to 12 trial sites. We called on the government to extend their commitment from eight to 12 trial sites, and we were really pleased that they did. It did take a little while, but I welcomed the Minister for Health extending those trial sites, because this is really important. In mental ill health, the data and the evidence about what works are missing. We need those suicide prevention trial sites and that data to make sure that what we are spending at both the Commonwealth and the state level with governments—hundreds of billions of dollars—is the very best spend to save as many Australians as we possibly can, and we need to continue to do that together.

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