Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to express my concerns on behalf of some important local organisations about the Abbott government budget measures which directly and adversely impact on these organisations and, importantly, on my constituents who seek to access these services.

The first is the South-Eastern Melbourne Medicare Local—SEMML, which is providing vital primary care support to the local community. It is, importantly, the lead agency that established and manages headspace Dandenong, and is the agency currently tasked by the government for the establishment of a much-needed new headspace in Fountain Gate.

However, the Abbott government's decision to replace the Medicare Local network with a new Primary Health Care Network, has thrown SEMML's role in involvement in these two local headspaces into chaos. It will effectively end its involvement and inevitably lead to an unacceptable delay in the rollout of headspace Fountain Gate. In fact, SEMML was about to sign a lease for headspace Fountain Gate before its involvement was terminated.

However, this is not just local. There are significant national ramifications in the move to abolish Medicare Locals. And that is that the Medicare Locals are lead agencies in the management of at least 30 headspaces across the country. Tonight, these headspaces have an uncertain future. It is imperative that the health minister moves immediately to provide measures to ensure that these headspaces remain open and viable. The last thing we need is for these headspaces to fail. I am aware that the health minister is in discussions with headspace nationally about this issue, but I want to re-emphasise to him and to this chamber how imperative it is to remedy this uncertainty as soon as possible.

Last week, I caught up with young people who have been directly affected by youth suicide in my area, including young men and women like Dani Rothwell, Emily Cooper, Jake Downward and Steph Bruders, who raised concerns about the delay in the rollout of headspace Fountain Gate. Young people dealing with depression, substance abuse and other mental health issues in the local community have expressed disappointment to me about the delay in the establishment of headspace Fountain Gate. There is a reason for this—that is, we have a significant challenge with youth suicide in my area. It is why I have campaigned relentlessly and remorselessly to ensure that there was a headspace in Dandenong and a headspace in Fountain Gate.

Our local area has a significant youth population of more than 60,000 young people in the City of Casey and they deserve and they need a youth-friendly mental health service. With the pressures on our youth in Casey and the need to provide this service, I would again take this opportunity to implore the health minister to rectify this anomaly as rapidly as possible.

Another one of the concerning measures in the 2014 budget was the changes to emergency relief funding. Emergency relief funding helps people deal with immediate financial crisis situations in a way that maintains the dignity of the individual and encourages self-reliance. There are over 700 community and charitable organisations around Australia providing emergency relief services including the Cranbourne Information Support Service and the Casey North Information Support Service.

The work that these organisations do is much needed and it is crucial that governments support them. For example, the Cranbourne Information Support Service, in the financial year 2012-13 CISS—the acronym for Cranbourne—saw nearly 8,000 individuals, who represented many families in Casey's south. They also assisted with almost 14,000 different requests for assistance, with over 6,000 of those requests being for emergency relief. During the last financial year, they provided $150,000 of food and petrol vouchers to those in need in our local community, as well as $12,315 in other financial assistance. This does not include food parcels.

Organisations like the Cranbourne Information Support Service and the other 700 services like that do not really need to have their emergency relief funding frozen or, in effect, diminished in real terms, particularly with an outer suburban growth belt corridor like mine in Holt.

The other issue that concerns me greatly is the cut to the Casey Cardinia Community Legal Service in my electorate. This service provides support to over 1,500 people, primarily women, annually with legal and financial advice, particularly those affected by family violence. We funded an office up until 2017. The funding for that office, as I understand, will be cut in 2015.

The City of Casey is in a terrible situation with domestic violence. The cuts to these services are to be deplored. I urge the government to reconsider the cuts to these particular services.