Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's wonderful to represent the people of Petrie in this place. One of the things that I love to do is to get out and talk to people about the issues that are important to them. On Facebook over the last few days I've been looking at some of the important issues, and people have raised many issues with me. Some of the big issues were energy costs; private health costs; mental health issues, as the member for Dobell just spoke about; Aboriginal issues; and child protection issues, just to name a few.

In relation to lower energy costs, there were some 20 people that contacted me today on Facebook in relation to lower energy costs: Heather Jane, Jill Milton, Susan Harding-Smith, Allan Bell and Monica Martin were some of them. What they were concerned about, obviously, was the rising cost of energy. How is the federal government acting in relation to this? We have taken action in a number of areas. One is to ensure that consumers are given a better deal by retailers. So when your contract runs out after 12 months, rather than just rolling it over they must now inform you.

Gas supplies are also short in this country due to a lot of exports and to some states not mining. But what we're doing from January 2018 is making sure that Australia is supplied first, to make sure that the gas is certainly there. The other big issue around energy as well is to ensure that the states are responsible for what they do. In Queensland, of course, 70 per cent of the generation is state owned. Remember that when Campbell Newman was Premier, the state government had an $80 billion debt and that when the Palaszczuk Labor government came in they moved some $25 billion of that debt onto water and energy suppliers. Is it any wonder why people at home, who are paying energy bills, now have higher costs with the increasing debt that the state Labor government has loaded on to them? But energy costs are certainly an issue, and we're acting on that. We must make sure with renewable energy that there's storage, and we must also make sure there's new base load built.

Private health costs are also important. They can often go up through higher wages for doctors and increased costs for hospitals. There's a whole range of reasons why they can go up. But, believe it or not, we've just delivered at a federal level the lowest increase in 10 years in relation to private health insurance. It's still too high, though, and I have raised this with the health minister, the Hon. Greg Hunt. He's looking very closely at how to lower this.

Mental health issues are big issues in this country as well. In the last three months alone the federal government has announced 10 new headspace clinics throughout the country, which brings to a total of 110 the number of headspace clinics, including one in Redcliffe. There are 12 suicide-prevention trial sites delivered by the primary health networks, and Brisbane North has one. We're working with the community to include state services and using the latest evidence base for approaches to prevent suicide. Mental health funding this year alone totals $4.2 billion, and since the election there's been an increase of some $360 million in new money.

The latest figures for suicide in this country—and I know the member for Dobell just spoke about this—are that 3,027 people died from suicide in 2015. That rate, believe it or not, is lower than back in the 1970s, but it has been increasing lately. I'd say to men, who make up 75 per cent of that number, that you're not alone. Life is about relationships, and there are people, family and friends who love you. If you're contemplating something like that, please know that there are people to talk to and that there is lots of support. I've got a black belt in judo; I train hard, but I'm not afraid to cry. It's all right for men to show emotion and to talk to their friends if they're having an issue. I just say to those people who are in that space that there are people who love you, and that we are there for you.

In relation to Aboriginal issues, we want to make sure that Indigenous Australians are well looked after. I recently met with Adrian Carson, the CEO of the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health. He's doing a great job in Deception Bay—a really good job. The results that they're getting out there at the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health are well above average.

In relation to child protection: we've got to make sure—and the state government is mainly responsible for this—that we protect children. A lot of that is that we have to make sure that we have magistrates who put away people who do the wrong thing. The federal government is also acting, through a bill we introduced today, to make sure that paedophiles don't abuse children overseas.