Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dunkley for moving this motion and for making some of the points she did. I agree with the basic premise that it is wrong to separate the wellbeing of our people from the health of our economy, our society and our environment. Having a strong economy is not, and should never be, a standalone goal. No government should ever pursue a strong economy simply to tick a box or to say how great we are.

As I said in my first speech to parliament: a strong economy is dependent upon ensuring that our country has all of the essential services and ingredients which are vital to our national wellbeing. We need educated, skilled, healthy people. We need quality infrastructure. We need social services to help those in need and we need a secure, protected and safe country so we can deliver a strong economy. But we need a strong economy to deliver each of those. They are entwined.

We need a strong economy to ensure that people have the opportunity to reach their full potential and to provide the choice and freedom to people to live their best lives. A strong economy is the gateway to what Australians value. It's the gateway that ensures Australia has a world-class health system, which provides universal access to affordable medical services. It's the gateway to investment and innovative thinking so that we can get our best minds tackling environmental challenges, tackling health crises. It's the gateway to creativity, the arts, leisure, sports—all of the things which broaden our lives and bring us joy. Having a strong economy ensures that, when something like COVID-19 comes along, the government is in the best position it is able to be in to support the Australian people with support measures like JobKeeper, JobSeeker and JobMaker.

I actually agree with the member for Dunkley that governments shouldn't solely measure economic success. We also need to measure and monitor outcomes in other areas. The government does this already through a variety of existing mechanisms. Because of the lack of time, let me simply focus on health.

In 2017, the Australian government, with states and territories, agreed to the Australian Health Performance Framework—a vehicle to support system-wide reporting on Australia's health and healthcare performance. This was followed in December 2019 with the release of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's 'national front door', which serves as a navigation tool to access data on the health of all Australians. As we can see from the national front door, Australia's health and wellbeing are improving in certain areas. For example, in 2017 there were 324 acute coronary events per 100,000 people compared to 379 per 100,000 in 2013. But the national front door also notes things that warrant attention, such as the increase in deaths by suicide. There were 12.1 suicides per 100,000 people in 2018 compared to 10.7 in 2009.

It's important to recognise that the government responds to and is informed by these realities, because all of us recognise that behind a health statistic is an individual. Governments must always strive to use the data they have at hand to direct policymaking and improve outcomes. We can see how the government is responding to these measures and the monitoring of different systems by how it is responding to the increases in suicide and mental illness. It includes the Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan and the recent launch by the government of the first phase of the $89.5 million intergenerational health and mental health study, which will focus on mental health and wellbeing. Actions like the fifth national plan and the intergenerational plan help inform our long-term direction.

The economy is not some separate entity from individuals, nor is the wellbeing of individuals separate from the economy. They are interrelated and they must be. As the Productivity Commission's report into mental health that was released last year showed, the cost of lost productivity due to mental health was conservatively $12 billion. But we also know that you cannot measure mental illness purely in monetary terms. No government should ever be single-mindedly driven by economics, and we're not.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitting suspended from 12:37 to 13:11

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