Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to amplify the following statement from a 20-year-old university student in North Sydney, who wrote this speech as part of the Raise Our Voice initiative, an initiative designed to amplify the voices of young women and gender diverse people in politics, domestic and foreign policy. She writes:

I believe parliament should prioritise mental health prevention through mandated compulsory education for primary and high-school students. This education should be stigma free, age appropriate and inclusive.

In year 5, I experienced my first period of severe mental ill-health when depression made eating, sleeping and socialising with my peers a daily challenge. But I am not alone in my experience. The 2014 Young Minds Matter national household survey estimated that 14 per cent of four- to 17-year-olds experienced a mental illness in that past 12 months. It is also well-known that suicide is the leading cause of death for young people in our nation—the leading cause of death for young Australians.

Mental health is vital to health and wellbeing, and every child that grows up in our nation deserves the right to reach a healthy adulthood. Through improving mental health literacy, we could improve help-seeking rates and reduce the shame around talking about mental health. Mental health education provides hope for the upcoming generations—hope that we may help people feel less alone, help that we may reduce the nine Australians that take their lives every day in our country.

I thank this young woman for her powerful statement and I add my voice to hers: young Australians need our protection and support more than ever.

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