Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for her question and send all of our condolences to Katya's family and to her friend's family and other friends as well. I want to pay credit to the member's advocacy around this issue from the day she arrived in this place. She works across the aisle with others who've been impacted either directly or through their community representation by this devastating condition. We know it hits people in the prime of their life when they have so much potential before them. We know it's incredibly difficult to treat and sometimes difficult to diagnose, and we know it's incredibly dangerous, as this tragedy reminds us again. It is the single medical illness with the highest mortality rate of all medical illnesses.

You also know that—and we've talked about this, member for Goldstein—there has been an increase in presentations right across the country through the COVID period, which has proved very stubborn. It hasn't yet started to subside, unlike some other health impacts of the pandemic. Historically, we all know that there has not been enough good evidence based treatment. Treatment has generally and historically been provided at the state level. We are trying to do more at a Commonwealth level, and to his very great credit, my predecessor, Greg Hunt, put in place a new Medicare program that provides up to 40 additional psychological sessions and 20 dietician sessions per year. That's been running for three years now. I think it's time to evaluate that program and the impact it's had on the community through a difficult period. More than 500,000 sessions of care under that program have already been delivered, which is a great thing, but it hasn't changed the picture nor shifted the dial sufficiently.

As you also know, there was money allocated by the former government to state governments for residential treatment centres. I've written to them. We've talked about this not moving quickly enough. I'm hopeful of announcements, including in your state, very soon so that we can actually get up and running. We've allocated $20 million for competitive community grants, which we're about to announce as well. In the budget two weeks ago, we did allocate new funding for this area. It was new funding for services that were otherwise not going to be funded beyond 30 June. The residential treatment centre that you're familiar with on the Sunshine Coast, Wandi Nerida, needed additional funding beyond 30 June. There's the Butterfly Body Bright program, which is a terrific service, and a range of others as well.

One of the areas that you and I have talked about, member for Goldstein, where there has never been enough effort in this area, is the area of research. I'm examining options to lift the research capability and the funding from government for research into this terrible area of mental illness, and I'll have more to say about that in the near future.

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