Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Berowra. He has been a great advocate for suicide prevention in this place, along with the former member for Eden-Monaro, who has now retired. And there are so many—such as the member for Fenner, and the member for Reid on this side—who have been involved in the focus on mental health.

One of the great challenges in the course of the global pandemic has been providing health care, and, in particular, mental health care. In order to deal with it, in March we established whole-of-population telehealth. There have been some questions today from the opposition about delivery. I'm very happy to inform them that 28 million services, since that time, have been delivered through telehealth. Over $1.4 billion has been invested in the provision of telehealth services. These are services that support elderly Australians in their own homes and in aged-care homes. They support all Australians—people who are immunocompromised, people who might have difficulties in leaving home—and they've been protecting doctors, nurses and healthcare workers at the same time.

As a consequence, one of the things that have occurred is we've seen record bulk-billing rates rise still further, from just over 86 per cent to 87.5 per cent—which, I'm advised, is an all-time bulk-billing record—for the year to 30 June. This means that we're helping to not only provide the services but provide more affordable services. I think that's a positive outcome in these most difficult of times.

Very significantly, of course, though, when we look at Victoria, we ask ourselves: why is it that five million Melburnians are under curfew because of a mass community outbreak? Five million Melburnians are unable to leave their homes for 23 hours a day unless it's for work, medical reasons or shopping. Why is it that we have shops and businesses closed because of a mass community outbreak? But, because of that, we've had a special need to deal with mental health. Fifty-nine per cent of mental health services in Victoria over the last month have been delivered via telehealth. What that means for a population under pressure, for a population facing a mass community outbreak, is that they've been able to get support for mental health and physical health through telehealth. And these things, together, are saving lives and protecting lives; they're giving people contact; and, above all else, they're giving people real and profound hope.

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