Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday we were lucky enough to have the wonderful Minister for Early Childhood Education and the Minister for Youth, Hon. Dr Anne Aly, come to visit our electorate of McEwen. We visited the Mernda Early Learning Centre, where we toured the facilities that had both long day care and three- and four-year-old kindergarten programs. We met with centre director, Bianca Elsayed, and I got to chat with the staff about how the needs of childcare staff are to be respected and valued. We were happy to tell them about the support Labor is giving through fee-free TAFE, which will help attract more people and ensure educated professionals come into the profession. We also talked about the real impact cheaper child care will have on all their families, and the conversations they've had about how Labor's policy would provide some much-needed cost-of-living relief for so many families at the centre. Of course, we had a bit of fun, rolled up our sleeves and had a good play with the kids, before packing up and heading across to Woodend to visit Youth Live4Life.

Youth Live4Life is a program that focuses on youth mental health and suicide prevention. It is a very sad fact that the already alarming teen suicide figures increase for youth in regional and rural areas. That's why programs like Youth Live4Life are so important for an electorate like ours in McEwen and my neighbouring electorates, such as Bendigo. We met with CEO, Bernard Galbally, and the youth crew, who were happy to sit around the table with the minister and I and discuss the biggest issues that the teens who access the program are facing now. We chatted with Jasper Selby, Alannah Sander, Sasha Anderson, Laura Crozier and James Selby, who are only some of the great crew at Youth Live4Life. We both came away determined to do the right thing by these strong and wonderful people.

The minister assured them that the Prime Minister is a champion for youth, and values their insight into the development of policy—which is why we are investing millions into mental health and wellbeing in schools to support children who have struggled following COVID. Quite often, sadly, we hear the opposition misrepresenting the recent positive changes around free mental health care when, in fact, the government is just following through on the commitment they put through on their policy. We followed through with this, because the added visits led to strain on our mental health system, with more people who were in crisis missing out—especially in regional and rural kids, where resourcing is already an issue. We will do more than slap a bandaid on this issue, when the problem is systemic.

I was incredibly lucky to have the minister out to our beautiful electorate of McEwen and to show her the amazing work done for our young children and teens. We know that this work is delivering positive results, and it's an absolute asset. I would encourage all members to look at the Youth Live4Life program and see how these young champions can come into your area and help build stronger mental health capabilities.