Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) serious mental health issues are often at their highest two to three years after a crisis, pandemic or natural disaster;

(b) the previous Government made significant progress in supporting the mental health of Australians by doubling Medicare-subsidised sessions through the Better Access initiative; and

(c) the current Government has halved the 20 sessions to ten from 1 January 2023;

(2) condemns the Government for prioritising their budget over the health and wellbeing of Australians; and

(3) further notes the Government's use of the independent evaluation of the Better Access initiative to defend their decision to rip away mental health support from Australians, is disingenuous given that Recommendation 12 clearly states, 'the additional 10 sessions should continue to be made available and should be targeted towards those with complex mental health needs'.

Last year whilst out campaigning for the election, the now Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, told Australians:

We should regard people's access to mental health care as no different to if someone who breaks an arm.

He pledged to further focus on mental health. Yet what we have seen since from the Albanese government is a direct shift against one of the core pillars of evidence-based medicine, moving away from the science in terms of policymaking.

Leading research highlights psychological problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, require more than the average number of sessions to provide the necessary care. The Sydney Morning Herald reports 10 sessions will not treat many mental health issues. In fact, extensive international research tells us around one in 10 patients simply can't improve with just 10 psychology sessions.

The Better access report conducted by the government indicates that people with more severe symptoms access more services and subsequently show the most significant improvement. Completely disregarding the evidence is not a solution. It's not the solution for a mum from Glenmore Park, in my electorate of Lindsay, who is scared that her daughter will not be able to access a full 20 Medicare subsidised psychology sessions that were previously available to her before this government halved the sessions on 1 January this year. This is not the solution for almost half of young women aged 16 to 24 who have experienced mental health issues in the past financial year. This is not the solution for one in five Australians who will suffer from mental illness in any given year. Simply put, it is not the solution that Australians deserve. The government is now reducing accessibility while misleading the public that it genuinely believes it is strengthening mental health care, stating that it is only helping the wealthy. These are not high-income people, hogging the sessions and leaving nothing for others, as health minister Mark Butler has argued. These are everyday Australians in need, and the Albanese government is turning its back on them without an alternative plan to support the mental health of Australians who access Medicare funded psychology sessions each year.

Let's have a look at the advice. Australian Psychological Society President Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe said:

The government commissioned Better Access evaluation released today found workforce shortages and location as key barriers to patient care which makes the axing of the additional sessions program harder to understand.

This program safely gave many people telehealth or in-person psychological care for the first time in their lives, yet many patients will now have to ration or stop treatment altogether.

Just as people shouldn't be asked to ration vital medicines like insulin, they shouldn't have to ration mental health care.

There was a similar sentiment with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who when he was in Tasmania before the election deceived the general public about strengthening mental healthcare. He said:

… we should regard people's access to mental healthcare as no different from if someone breaks an arm—they expect to get treated by a doctor.

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported:

Mental Health Australia chair Matt Berriman said the cut to Medicare-subsidised psychology sessions had raised broader concerns about the mental health system. He challenged the government to reveal its longer-term plan for the sector.

"We need added services and action yesterday, not less," Berriman said.

"The new government should make mental health a key priority, which has seemed to have been lost since taking power. Where's Labor's plan for mental health in this country?"

Further backing the outcry, in a letter to the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, the Australian Psychological Society, Rural Health Alliance, Victorian Ambulance Union and the Australian Federal Police Association all united against the cuts, shining a light on the additional non-direct pressures this decision will place on the system.

The tragedy behind this decision is its untimeliness. When Australians are most vulnerable, recovering after the years of the COVID pandemic; when people have been hit by multiple flood events, multiple fires and other natural disasters; the Albanese government has decided that the Medicare funded sessions that provide so much support to so many Australians are unnecessary. At a time when suicides are rising and the mental health epidemic is worsening, the question is: is the government listening to Australians at all?

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