Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) expresses its support for continued trials into suicide prevention in rural and regional Australia;

(2) recognises:

(a) the huge toll suicide takes on regional communities;

(b) that people in regional areas are more likely to take their own lives than those in metropolitan areas;

(c) that suicide is the leading cause of death in people aged between 15 and 44; and

(d) that regional communities are affected by economic stress, the effects of natural disasters, isolation and loneliness, leading to increased risk of suicide;

(3) encourages the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to:

(a) commission regionally appropriate suicide prevention activities; and

(b) identify young people at high risk of self-harm or suicide and support them; and

(4) supports funding into mental health research and trials in electoral divisions across regional Australia, such as those conducted in Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Port Lincoln and Yorke Peninsula, in the electoral division of Grey.

Suicide is the last thing a person does in their life. It's a waste, it's sad and it's horrific. I rise today to add my support to the people and programs which seek to raise the profile of this issue so those who need help realise they're not on their own but that the community and the government stand ready to help them.

The reality is that every day loving, talented and good people are felled by a seemingly unlikely killer: themselves. The triggers for suicide are many and varied, and it seems that regional communities carry more than their fair share of those issues. Economic stress; natural disasters; isolation and loneliness; and high incidence of drug and alcohol use are all factors which are prominent in regional areas. These, in turn, lead to an increased risk of suicide. In fact, data is available showing that the risk of suicide for farmers is twice the national average.

The conventional belief is that suicide only impacts on close family members and that following a death by suicide it is only immediate family members who suffer the terrible resultant grief. Those who fall outside the circle of next of kin are often forgotten in the aftermath of the suicide death, but it's clear that schools, workplaces, teammates and communities are also deeply impacted by suicide. Every member of this place has almost certainly been personally affected by suicide. Certainly, I am one of those.

The need to address suicide is one that brings this parliament together; it is beyond politics and we all seek to find solutions. The government's National Suicide Prevention Strategy is a most welcome program, and demonstrates the parliament's commitment. This program is delivering suicide prevention training courses throughout a range of regional centres throughout my electorate of Grey. Its initiatives include an Indigenous suicide crisis support and after-care workshop held in Port Augusta last year. Participants came from all over Australia to attend the two-day workshop, bringing professional and cultural expertise together to explore prevention strategies and interventions, which address suicidal crisis and follow-up care, and to explore what works for Indigenous populations.

Through the Country SA Primary Health Care Network, the 'question, persuade and refer' training program is being offered to around 1,000 community members within the National Suicide Prevention Trial regions, including Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Pirie and the Yorke Peninsula. The program is designed to equip everyday people with three simple steps to help save a life: ask a question, try to persuade the person to seek help and then refer that person to the appropriate assistance. Like all pilot programs, we can never be sure of the results, but it's fair to say that we have not arrived at this point by accident. The program is being implemented on the best advice. We recognise the value of the community knowing how to assist and hopefully one day save a life.

Five suicide prevention groups in Grey have been awarded grants through the National Suicide Prevention Strategy to continue to work to reduce the number of suicides. These are the Empowering Lower Eyre Suicide Prevention Network, the Port Lincoln's suicide prevention network, Stamp Out Suicide Copper Coast, Stamp Out Suicide Yorke Peninsula and the Whyalla Suicide Prevention Network. As part of this strategy, the government is also extending support for Roses in the Ocean training for community members with a lived experience of suicide, which has been accessing data from regional community suicide prevention forums and the online survey to help identify the key priorities in the trial region. Strong themes have emerged during the regional suicide prevention networks' work.

I'm also pleased to report that John Dawkins, MLC, has been appointed as chair of the Premier’s Council on Suicide Prevention, a state government initiative tasked with reducing SA's suicide rate. Mr Dawkins, who has for more than a decade been a passionate advocate for suicide prevention, will act as the Premier's Advocate for Suicide Prevention. I have already spoken to John about the links between the SA and federal governments, and I look forward to working with closely with him.

The government's approach on this very confronting issue is multipronged, with the PM recently announcing a $34 million boost for Lifeline. The budget, which sits before the parliament at the moment, has allocated $338 million for mental health funding and there is the associated boost for suicide prevention programs. In closing, I return to personal issues: the huge toll that suicide takes on families and on regional communities and the sad reality that too many people—sons, daughters, husbands and friends—are no longer with us. In the words of the Roman philosopher Seneca, 'Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.' We need to give people that courage.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for Grey and his seconder for putting this motion up. It give us an opportunity to ventilate a lot of the issues around the extraordinarily high rates of suicide across this country. I want to start my contribution by just highlighting the extent of people dying from intentional self-harm. In 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that suicide accounted for over one-third of deaths, 35.4 per cent, among 15- to 24-year-old Australians and over a quarter of deaths, 28.6 per cent, among 25- to 30-year-old Australians. For those over 35 to 44, it was 16 per cent.

Significantly though, I note the member for Grey's discussion around the impact of suicide on rural areas. He is right to point that out in relation to people working in the agricultural sector in particular, who clearly have been suffering high suicide rates. But the most prevalent impact of suicide is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across this country. In 2016, 162 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons died as a result of suicide, so the bureau tells us. The standardised death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons is 23.8 deaths per 100,000 persons compared to the rate of 11.4 deaths per 100,000 persons for non-Indigenous Australians. The median age of death by suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons over this period was 29 years, compared with 45 in the non-Indigenous population. So Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are committing suicide at a much younger age. Aboriginal females had a lower median age of death, 26.1, compared to 29.8 for males. This is extraordinary and it gives you a picture of a dynamic which is happening in many communities across Australia. Over the five years from 2012 to 2016, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people between five and 17 years of age accounted for more than a quarter of all suicide deaths in this age group. So, when we contemplate what we're talking about here, it is a catastrophe of huge proportions amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and particularly in remote areas.

The member for Grey talked about the 12 regions selected for trial sites. Two of those are specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. One of them is the Darwin area. I've been attending the committee for these trial sites in the Darwin area, and I'm pleased to do so. The National Suicide Prevention Trial aims to gather evidence on how a systems based approach to suicide prevention can be best undertaken in Australia. I've attended two of the working group discussions in Darwin. Topics discussed included giving greater attention to the zero- to 17-year-old age group. That's supported by the evidence coming from the Bureau of Statistics. Another topic was community control and empowerment grounded in the community based on community needs and accountable to the community. This is of relevance to all of regional Australia, not just Darwin. A further topic was taking a holistic and sustainable approach. We've got to give people confidence that there are ways of preventing self-harm but also dealing with and treating those people who have attempted self-harm.

While I welcome the trial sites, and it's very important that we do, I want to make an observation about a matter which I think is a bit concerning. A health equality plan was developed by us in government and has been adopted by this government. The implementation plan for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-23 has not been funded. This is important: not one single dollar has been put into this implementation plan by the government. The plan addresses issues to do with people involved in mental health and suicide. The complementary National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People's Mental Health and Social and Emotional Wellbeing 2017-23 needs an implementation plan and an appropriate levels of funding. It is yet to come. Whilst we're talking about these issues, as well as having cross-party support and bipartisan support across this parliament, we need to make sure that resources are given so that we can make an impact on this dreadful scourge in our society.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for bringing forward this important motion. Although none of the suicide prevention trials that we're discussing here today are in my own electorate of Fisher, we do have one in the northern part of the Sunshine Coast. For that, I thank the government and congratulate the member for Wide Bay for his hard-fought advocacy on this important issue for regional Australia. This trial is another part of the Sunshine Coast's increasingly pivotal and cutting-edge role in combating the terrible impact of suicide in this country.

The Minister for Health visited Fisher earlier this month to see the facilities and meet the people who are carving out that role. The main purpose of his visit was to officially open the Thompson Institute. The Thompson Institute is already well on the way to being one of the nation's leading research facilities for understanding and treating a range of mental health disorders. I was proud to be able to make a contribution to that work with the support of the minister when we delivered $5 million in the 2017 budget to fund projects at the institute on youth mental health and suicide prevention. We showed the minister the cutting-edge MRI scanner which the institute has installed and which allows director Dr Jim Lagopoulos and his team to understand the physical changes in the brain which lie at the foundation of many mental health disorders. Through these physical examinations, supported by the federal government's $5 million, and with the clinical experience of dealing with patients at a rate of more than 6,000 people each year, the Thompson Institute will, in the coming years, make contributions to our understanding of suicide prevention.

The minister also met with Mark Forbes and his EndED organisation—'EndED' meaning end eating disorders—to discuss their pioneering work in bringing Australia's first specialist residential facility for the treatment of eating disorders to the Sunshine Coast. I have no doubt that Mark's passionate and energetic pursuit of his vision will soon see our community at the forefront of another central part of the effort to combat suicide in Australia. Anorexia nervosa is the world's deadliest mental health condition. Having anorexia as a female aged between 15 to 24 increases their mortality rate 12 times over their peers. Eating disorders are more likely than any other mental disorder to lead sufferers to take their own lives, whether by intentional suicide or from the medical complications of dieting. EndED House will doubtless make an important difference to rescuing many from this tragic end. I hope that, with this minister's support, we as a government will soon be able to do something to help Mark to take this facility from a dream to a reality.

This government, led by the outstanding work of the health minister, has an unmatched focus on mental health and is already making an unprecedented investment in research and treatment, of which our regional suicide prevention trials are only just one part. The government should certainly be congratulated for this focus. However, I believe there is always more that we can do, and I will continue to work with the minister on some of the most important mental health issues in regions like the Sunshine Coast.

The tyranny of distance and physical isolation makes many people living in rural and regional Australia vulnerable to the impacts of cyberbullying. I believe that we need to do more to fight online abuse, and I'm working closely with the Prime Minister, the Minister for Communications, the member for Forrest, and the Attorney-General to pursue the legislative changes I think we need.

On the coast, we also have a great many former service men and women and members both past and present of the emergency services. For these courageous Australians, the debilitating impact of post-traumatic stress disorder can substantially increase their likelihood of suicide. I believe that the PTSD program at the Thompson Institute could make an important difference to better treatment for this condition in the future and to reduce its fatal toll. I'll continue to work with the relevant ministers to secure the funding that the institute needs to pursue this work.

The tragic reality is that, during our sitting week—just this sitting week—56 Australians will take their own lives; 1,680 will attempt to take their own lives and, for every person who is successful, 30 are not. The government should be commended for responding to this urgent issue, with unprecedented action and investment. I support the motion.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for moving this motion on suicide prevention and for helping to shine a light on, in particular, the regional and rural aspects of this issue. As he has highlighted, it is much more amplified in our rural and regional areas for a number of the issues that he has canvassed and that my colleagues, the member for Lingiari and other regional members, will well understand. Isolation has a lot to do with it, but the stresses of life for farmers is also a significant factor, navigating the ups and downs of the seasons, the droughts and the more extreme weather we're facing, and then added to, I must state, in recent times by the behaviour of banks towards our farmers. I want to salute the work of Senator Williams for continuing to pursue, over the years, the banking royal commission, which is shining a light on that now. I really was inundated by complaints from the farmers in my region over the behaviour of banks, which was adding another whole layer of strain and stress to their lives.

So we know about the stresses on farmers. There are the kids in rural and regional areas who are coming to grips with their sexuality and navigating things like the recent plebiscite that we had. I've met with those kids and seen the pressures they're under and sometimes the tragic results that they have had. But there are also our Indigenous kids, as was mentioned by the member for Lingiari. I have quite a few concentrated areas of issues in my region that have, tragically, resulted in too many losses of lives amongst our Indigenous kids but also in teen suicide in general. That's why I was so proud of the fact that we were able to unite across the aisle in this parliament to form the Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention, working together with my colleague the member for Berowra. When we first started that process we wondered how much we could achieve, but it really has been rewarding to see what we've been able to do—the unity we've been able to forge across the aisle, having both Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, and our shadow minister, Julie Collins, attend a lot of our activities and reach consensus on some policy initiatives. Through that mechanism we were able to bring up, for example, Dr Duncan MacKinnon and his team from Bega. They explored a fantastic initiative through our team clinic concept, working through Greater Pacific Health down there, which addressed the real issues of why kids weren't reaching out for help and what sort of support we could provide them with to eliminate this curse. And it really works—providing that initial portal for kids to go and see nurses in a non-threatening situation, timing that with their transport to and from schools, being able to take that further if necessary, finding means to do that without any cost or charge to the kids, and then working that through with counsellors in the schools, et cetera. It's become a really successful model. I was really pleased that they were able to tell that story up here through the committee mechanism. I salute the minister for taking on the lessons from that and then expanding and funding the team clinic project through the Bermagui Medical Centre, the Curalo Medical Clinic in Eden, the Lighthouse Surgery in Narooma and the Mainstreet Medical Centre in Merimbula. The Kiama Medical Practice, further up the coast, has also benefited from this.

I'd like to see this taken nationwide using our GP networks, because they are so ubiquitous. It's been great to see what headspace facilities have done. They are a bit patchy, depending on their location and how they are being operated, and you can't have headspaces everywhere in the country. I think being able to build on this network of using our GPs and nurses to create a nationwide approach to this is a great way forward. I'm really pleased with the work that the committee has been able to do to get that policy process underway.

I'm also, though, concerned about the issues to do with our veterans in rural and regional areas and the people who are depending on Centrelink services. I know there's been a drive in recent times, everywhere, to try and create efficiencies and automate stuff, but, if you take the human out of human services, there's a problem. That's particularly amplified in rural and regional areas. If my veterans don't get a chance to speak with a person, or if my senior citizens are forced to try and deal with online services—the struggles they have dealing with the computerised services where they don't fit within boxes—it causes an enormous amount of stress out there.

Our electorate office has basically become an adjunct to Centrelink. My crew have had a lot of pressure put on them dealing with people in high states of stress and anxiety, but the work they have done has prevented a lot of potential suicides by helping people through that. I'd like for us to step back and have a look at providing better services in human services by using humans.

Damian Drum (Murray, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, too, would like to congratulate the member for Grey for bringing forward this motion on the National Suicide Prevention Trial. As a government, we are proud of the fact that we are extending this groundbreaking suicide prevention trial for a further year with an additional $13 million investment to ensure that local communities have more time to trial their services and to report on what's working and what's not. The National Suicide Prevention Trial is based on 12 locations across Australia, and will now run until 30 June 2020. I'm very grateful for the extension of the additional 12 months, although it's worth pointing out that regional Victoria has been left out. That's an area that we can look forward to in the future.

The resources needed to tackle suicide in regional farming communities in drought may be very different to the resources that are needed to tackle suicide in the inner cities of Melbourne or Sydney. The reasons for that difference may be the many external issues that many of our regional Australians are subject to. In regional Australia, for so many people their whole financial success or otherwise can be subject to the weather. World commodity prices, which many of our regional Australians have no control over—the world commodity price for milk, or fruit, or grain, or whatever it is—can seriously impact upon the viability and the sheer profitability of many people in regional Australia. The lack of access to people with the qualifications to help with a mental health problem can also be a factor as to why we have such different outcomes between those in metropolitan cities and those in regional Australia.

Apart from funding the suicide prevention extension, we are also funding additional mental health nurses in my electorate of Murray. These nurses are having a profound impact on the people they are helping. Mental health nurses are extremely valued in our primary healthcare system. We as a government are very determined to support them whilst the mental healthcare system is transformed and modernised. The PHNs, I might add, are playing a major role in that.

In the last budget, just two weeks ago, we also added a $20 million injection for mental health nurses to support Australians over 75 whose mental and physical health are at risk because of social isolation and loneliness. It highlights the strong commitment from this government.

I also want to touch on some of these differences in relation to remoteness being a major risk factor contributing to suicide. Breaking down the data from 2010 to 2014—I know it's a few years old—it shows that the major cities have the lowest rate of suicide deaths, at 9.8 people per 100,000. In inner regional areas it goes to 13. For outer regional residents the rate is 14.3. But for remote residents, it is 19 deaths, so it's more than double that of people in major metropolitan cities. Also, young people who live outside capital cities seem to be at a much heightened risk of suicide. The break down of those statistics shows that in 2010 in the capital cities—and, again, I know it's older—it is 5.9 per 100,000 in the 15 to 19 year old age bracket. Once you start to move out of the capitals it goes to 10.3, which is getting up towards double. Then, for 20 to 24 year olds outside the capitals it is 16.5. Again, a bit more responsibility in those 20 to 24 year olds—outside of the capitals there seems to be a very strong trend there.

We need to seriously look at what we are doing with this very, very important program. We need to look at regional Australia, the areas outside of the capitals, because it seems that that is where we as a society and we as a government are failing to address the high level of suicides.

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

I, too, would like to commend the member for Grey for his very-well-worded motion on suicide prevention, particularly in rural and regional areas, and elsewhere. The member for Grey may know an area called Callington, around Tailem Bend, which is hard farming area. This story relates to a farmer, with a young family, who worked the land. He'd been in the merchant navy and was adjusting to rural life in the area. One fine day he went out in his tractor to check the fence. As he checked the fence, a firearm he had with him discharged, mortally wounding him. He had tried to crawl back to his tractor but he didn't make it—he died. That man was my father's brother, AJ. My father, who died in 2016, took to his grave the hurt and loss of a very treasured, loved brother. The circumstances of his death always left that doubt. So, when the member for Grey raises this very powerful issue, it struck home to me because it was something that my father could never fully comprehend or understand. My cousin—AJ's daughter, Alva—died early, and I believe she was also severely affected by that loss. She struggled with mental illness. They lived around Callington and Carrickalinga. That family never recovered from that loss, so when the member for Grey talks about rural suicide prevention, he has my wholehearted support.

I support the government's funding of these suicide prevention centres, because they can literally save lives. How do I know that? We had a suicide cluster in the region I represent in 2011 and 2012. Coming from a family that had been touched by this, I started seeing the names of young people on bridges I drove past. We had a suicide cluster—it's a horrible term—and I understand it was the same in Albury as well, unfortunately. That led to my partnering with the Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry. We did a program on Four Cornerscalled 'There's No 3G in Heaven' encouraging the community to talk about the stigma around suicide and to get a conversation happening in our area. As a consequence of that program and the receptiveness of the then federal government and the subsequent Abbott government, two headspaces were opened in the area, in Dandenong and in Fountain Gate. The member for La Trobe, Jason Wood, was there when we opened the one in Fountain Gate; I was there in 2013 when we opened the one in Dandenong. Those made a meaningful change for young people. It's still not enough, but it's part of the matrix of services that kids can access. Those services should be available in rural and regional areas.

I watched the member for Grey's contribution. He mentioned that he had also had some experience with this. Families don't need to go through this. This is a loss. One suicide is one too many. We need to do something as a community, and that's why I welcome the bipartisan way in which the government is providing support. If we can get hubs like these headspaces into these areas, farmers and their families can seek support and start a conversation without stigma and reticence. The member for Grey and others are talking about destigmatisation, so that a farmer like my uncle—a proud, self-sustaining individual in the merchant navy—mightn't feel the need to end his life in the way in which he did on that day, many years ago. I commend the work the member is doing, and support the government. We can never talk about this enough. We should continue to do everything we can to stop these horrible events from happening in rural and regional areas and in our cities.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Following on from the previous speaker, I also congratulate the member for Grey for introducing this most critical motion. In preparation for this speech I read a 2016 report showing that youth suicide in our society reached record levels in that particular year. The report made a number of obvious observations—we are only now starting to recognise that what was considered previously to be accidental, a car accident or an accidental discharge of a weapon, is now being properly reported as what it always was: a suicide attempt or the ending of someone's life through exquisite mental agony and pain—and makes the point that the most disappointing part about the statistic is that now we know more than we have ever known before about mental health and what brings people to this most extraordinary point where they think their only option to end the pain they are suffering from is to end their lives.

The Turnbull government—and many governments around Australia—have recognised this is a problem that our community can and should do something about. I was very proud last year to help launch a $16 million initiative in my area that was dedicated towards mental health, mostly around identifying people who were at risk. That year—only a year ago—my area had suffered a series of people who were still at high school committing suicide. They had no reason to commit suicide—well, those of us on the outside looking in thought that they had no reason. They came from good families and had very good prospects. They had not ostensibly suffered bullying or any other outside influence that brought them to this point. The point was that we had not identified them as at-risk youths.

At this point I have to commend the principal of Barrenjoey High School, Ian Bowsher. At the time he recognised that this was a problem and was something that not only he could do something about but he must do something about. He took action. A number of people felt that finally they were in a place where they could openly and calmly discuss how they were feeling about these issues, so much so that they could get help and assistance. More importantly, they realised that they were not going through this alone.

My area has I think one of the great premiers that New South Wales never had—that is, John Brogden. John had a well-known public breakdown. He was put under extraordinary pressure by the media, which behaved irresponsibly. They went over stories that were not true in fact—frankly, they were fiction. John is a person of great capacity. If he had been given the chance to lead New South Wales, I know that he would have saved us from years of ineptitude and corruption. He would have made a real difference to millions of people in that state. But he was cut down because no-one thought to understand the sorts of pressures and the sorts of injustices that were being placed upon him. They never thought to reach out and say: 'How are you, mate? We're with you.' At that point he was deserted by so many who had previously pretended to be his friends.

John, to his great credit, did not slink away and did not decide that it was too much. John did what he always did—he got stuck in. He became the head of Lifeline in Australia. He has advocated tirelessly to help people who feel that they are at the point of suicide, at the point when they most need that help. I have to recognise that Julia Gillard reached out across the aisle to John Brogden. This government and other governments have provided millions of dollars in funding for Lifeline and the critical research and efforts that they make to help people.

I can only commend the member for Grey for pointing out all of these issues. I commend this motion to the chamber.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also congratulate the member for Grey. I commend him for bringing on this motion. It's a very important issue. Suicide prevention is an issue that we all, irrespective of our political colours, clearly feel strongly about. It's vital that we continue to work together to ensure the various programs and initiatives started and funded by governments—your government or our government; it doesn’t matter whose—continue to receive bipartisan and even tripartisan support so that they don't get bogged down in the usual stuff and nonsense that can occur in this place.

Suicide causes enormous anguish to many people, families and communities. In rising to speak I, firstly, would like to express my sympathy and condolences to anyone who has been affected by the suicide of another person. It is the leading cause of death in Australia for persons aged between 15 and 44. Few would know that men aged 85 and above in regional Tasmania are actually the most at-risk group in all of the country, with suicide rates three times the national average. Tasmania has the second-highest rate of suicide in Australia, with 17 deaths per 100,000 people. Tasmania is, sadly, the only state in Australia where the rate is rising. Forty per cent of Tasmanians who access mental health services live in rural communities and regional areas, which is the subject of this motion.

I do commend the member for Murray for saying what I think a lot of us feel—that is, there's a lot of focus on suicide prevention in the cities and the suburbs, which is where a lot of the population lives, but the rates are so much higher in regional and rural Australia. There's this view of the heroic farmer who just takes all that life can give them—everything that happens on the land; the droughts, the floods—that there's a sort of stoic individualism and they just rise above it all. Well, they don't. They need help. The pressures, the financial pressures, that farmers and their families in particular feel when times are tough are just immeasurable. These are people who don't go out and seek help; they try and bottle it up. They try to do it all by themselves, and they're the people who most need assistance.

Preventing suicide is difficult, and causes great aguish for family members and friends who try to keep their loved ones alive and well. More investment is needed in our mental and general health services, particularly in preventative health services. I don't think enough attention is given by the medical fraternity to preventative health, which keeps people socially connected and keeps people emotionally healthy. The importance of community programs, such as recreation and sporting activities, cannot be discounted; however, they are often siloed: 'That's not a health issue. We'll let the local council deal with that. We'll let the local council fund that.' Well, the local council doesn't always have the money. We need to treat these things as health issues. Getting the local community bus out to the old folk who need assistance, because they live miles away, and taking them to the local community centre keeps those folk socially connected. It keeps them emotionally well. I think we need to look more broadly at what constitutes good health in our regional communities.

Tasmania is one of 12 sites around the country taking part in the suicide prevention trials. These were a recommendation of the National Mental Health Commission prior to the last election. I'm pleased to say those recommendations enjoyed bipartisan support. These trials would have occurred under a Labor government as well. And this is the importance of this issue that we all come together. I'm pleased to see that the federal government has provided $3 million for the trial in Tasmania, which will run to 2020. The focus in northern Tasmania is on men aged 40 to 64 and women over 65, which is very important. I am disappointed, I must say, that there hasn't been the focus on young people that I would like to have seen. In the last couple of years there has been an unfortunately termed 'cluster' in Break O'Day Council of young people taking their own lives, and I would have liked to have seen some focus on that, but we'll see in the future.

Before I wrap up, the Rural Alive and Well Program just does such important work in this area, including outreach work. It goes out to farmers and regional families and helps on the ground. It's a very important organisation, and it must be funded into the future and not have its funding cut. (Time expired)

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also thank the member for Grey for raising this motion. Suicide prevention and mental health are absolutely above politics. In fact, it is everybody's responsibility in every community when it comes to mental health and suicide prevention. I want to start by saying to anyone who is listening to this speech that if you are suffering or living with mental ill health, I want you to know there is help in your community. Information about crisis support services and links to beyondblue, the Black Dog Institute, Lifeline and headspace are on my Facebook page.

Earlier this year, the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Bill Shorten, was in Townsville and together we hosted a town hall meeting with more than 240 people. It was a packed room, with standing room only. After being asked many questions, the Leader of the Opposition asked the audience one question, and that was for people to raise their hand if they had known someone or had been impacted directly by suicide. Almost every person in the audience raised their hand, which was quite astonishing. But what is even more astonishing is the facts surrounding suicide. Lifeline reports that for every death by suicide it is estimated that as many as 30 people attempt to take their own lives. Suicide is also a major concern in my community. The dark shadow of mental ill health has hung over Australia for far too long. The stigma attached to mental ill health is almost as prevalent today as it was 50 years ago. In fact, for many young people, veterans, elderly men—as was mentioned by my colleague, men over 80 are particularly impacted—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the struggle is getting worse. Social media plays an especially large role in relation to bullying, which has extended now beyond the school yard. The expectations placed on the physical appearance and behaviour of young women and girls, for example, are completely unacceptable.

Before being elected to parliament, I was CEO of a community managed mental health organisation operating from Palm Island to Mount Isa. The community managed sector is more often than not overlooked when it comes to the vital and practical supports that can be provided to people on a day-to-day basis. The community managed mental health sector is both effective and efficient.

Mental health is one of my passions, and since being elected to this place in 2016, I have continued to champion more awareness and funding and access to appropriate mental health services for people in my community. Veteran suicide is one area that has been in the shadows for far too long nationally, but also in my electorate, which is a garrison city. I vowed in my maiden speech to stand up and fight for our veterans here in this place and I have worked very hard with our veterans every day since. Within the first month of being elected I set up Townsville's first Defence community reference group, which includes all Townsville's ex-serving organisations as well as current serving ADF and the RAAF personnel. The first item on our agenda was the veterans and families suicide prevention trial. As a collective, we worked hard on developing the terms of reference for the group, the job description for the project manager for the trial and the appointment of who would be on the steering committee. The group has consistently fed into the development of the trial that is currently sitting with the Northern Queensland PHN. I have been intrinsically involved with the veterans and families suicide prevention trial because I believe that these men and women, who have given selflessly of their lives so that we can live in the freedom that we experience in this country, deserve the very best support that we can offer.

The only way we are going to truly address the distress caused by mental ill health and suicide is by delivering a national stigma reduction campaign. We must encourage people in distress to seek help and support. Time and time again I hear people talking about the fact that they are too afraid to speak about their experiences because of what people might say. Time and time again people feel unable to discuss issues with their family members, their husbands, their wives. This is particularly the case in the veteran community and in workplaces where people are very afraid of losing their job. I would like to think that we in Australia, for the first time, could fund a national stigma reduction campaign that could be as successful as those in Canada, Scotland and New Zealand. That is the only way we will really get on the table the need for people to seek help and feel safe and comfortable to do so.

Debate adjourned.