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

I thank the member for Forde for his motion. I know how deeply he cares about the community in Queensland that he serves, in particular the young people, by bringing this motion to the House today. Vital services for young people like Kids Helpline really do matter, especially as we combat a mental health crisis in this country. As the shadow assistant minister for mental health and suicide prevention, I acutely feel a responsibility to address this crisis when I see the challenges that our local community faces, in particular our young people. I see the impact of lockdowns and of not being able to attend schools. A once-in-a-century pandemic has taken away loved ones, separated families and dramatically shaped the formative years of students. Western Sydney also battled floods and fires and had livelihoods washed away. The trauma is left behind and does linger. There have been cost-of-living pressures as well, and these are being faced by our young people.

Whilst engaging with mental health and suicide prevention stakeholders, I've been quite troubled by the struggles that young Australians are facing today. In the 2021-22 financial year, Kids Helpline was contacted directly by over 443,000 children and young people aged between five and 25 from across Australia, with millions more using resources and content across multiple channels. It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated social issues for young people, and psychologists that I've spoken with have warned that a tsunami is on the horizon, as it takes years for the mental health impacts of big events to start coming through. For the first time in its over-30-year history, more than half of callers now require counselling, where previously they were referred on to external supports. These statistics marry up with the sense we all have that the times we live in are much more difficult. Each hardship varies and each story is different, but each person is also different, and any one of us who has been in an electorate office knows that the people who present through the doors are often dealing with quite significant issues, and more and more I'm seeing people present through my election office in Penrith with mental health issues, or having a loved one experiencing this. There are huge workforce issues that begin with the education and training pipeline and flow through to the distribution and retention of the workforce across our population, including inner and outer metro areas, such as those in Western Sydney, and most definitely in regional communities.

We all have a collective responsibility to do more to ease that burden that's being faced in particular by young kids right now not only by paving an easier path to accessing support but also by making sure that the support is available for those who need it. We will, unfortunately, never truly know the full social cost of mental illness, but we do know to some extent the economic costs of poor mental health. The Impact Economics and Policy report commissioned by NSW Council of Social Service looked at the compounding impacts of repeated natural disasters and the pandemic on the mental health of the population. The report found that rates of depression and anxiety had increased in recent years, with young people some of the worst affected. This includes an almost 50 per cent increase, from 2018 to 2021, in the number of teenage girls presenting for self-harm or suicidal thoughts.

For those privileged to serve in positions of leadership, I invite all of us to ask what can we do to address this very important issue that is not going away; it is only growing, especially for those without the proper support networks that many of us have. I call upon all members of parliament to continue to raise awareness of the important services available to young people through the Kids Helpline 24/7 by calling 1800551800 or online through kidshelpline.com.au. I also call on the Albanese government to support further growth in the Kids Helpline services to meet the sad, ever-increasing demand for support being experienced by children right across our country.

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