Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the recent World Suicide Prevention Day. The mental health of each of us in our community is one of the most important things that we can pay attention to. I recognise and celebrate the fact that we are taking action to deal with suicide issues all around the world, but particularly here in Australia.

Mental disorders affect up to 45 per cent of Australians, and they have far-ranging effects that are long lasting. In fact, 3,000 Australians die each year from intentional self-harm. That's 3,000 individuals, 3,000 families and 3,000 communities affected by the terrible outcome of suicide. It has a major impact on our society. In fact, more than 100,000 life years are lost every year, and that's more than all the 20 leading causes of death around Australia.

Unfortunately, men are affected more than females, with three times more success rates—if you can call it success—for men dying from suicide than for females. My own family has been affected by suicide. In fact, my brother Tim was lucky enough to survive multiple attempts of suicide. But my cousin Matthew, unfortunately, did not. That's because of the lack of services which we could wrap around my cousin Matthew, who was actually in a rural area.

So I'm very proud to be part of the Morrison government, which is making prevention of suicide one of its highest priorities in health. There has been a significant commitment to the Long Term National Health Plan. This is not only a personal priority of our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, it is also a personal priority of Greg Hunt, our Minister for Health. This is so important.

And it's not just an investment in terms of money it's an investment in terms of strategy. There is $736 million being invested in mental health. That's a significant investment; in fact, it's the largest investment to date. Of that, $500 million is for youth and Indigenous mental health, and to look at suicide prevention plans. Importantly, Christine Morgan has been declared the National Suicide Prevention Adviser. That's to ensure that we have a whole-of-government approach to suicide; because mental health actually affects so many different sectors of society we need to have a whole-of-government approach.

What are the specifics of what our government is doing with regard to investment in this very important problem? We are establishing 12 National Suicide Prevention Trial sites across Australia. These are to look at trials and factors that can be used to prevent suicide. There is $48 million being invested into this initiative to help understand how to improve strategies for the effective prevention of suicide. We're also investing $9 million in infrastructure projects, through state and territory governments, to ensure that we can deter people from using locations which we know are at high risk of being used for suicide. We're investing $33 million in Lifeline, which is an incredibly important telephone crisis support service. We're investing $36 million in the National Suicide Prevention Leadership and Support Program and we're investing $12 million in Suicide Prevention Australia. Importantly, as we know, headspace is a wonderful initiative for our youth. It helps with prevention, and we're rolling out 36 new headspaces across the whole of Australia. I'm delighted that one will be rolled out in Higgins, my own electorate. This is important because we have one of the highest proportions of young people in my electorate and we have a thriving LGBTI community. We know that those who are from that important community have a much greater burden when it comes to issues with regard to mental health and suicide. So I'm very delighted that this vibrant community in Higgins will be supported by new Higgins headspace.

Additionally, there are two significant changes that we are making at the system level, and they are a real-time suicide and self-harm monitoring system with a $15 million investment, which is a really exciting change, and also that we are appointing this National Suicide Prevention Adviser. Investing in mental health and suicide prevention is not a choice; it's a must.

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