Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

s DANIEL () (): My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Recently, 16-year-old Katya from my electorate contacted me about the death of her 15-year-old friend due to an eating disorder. Katya says: 'The fact that the system is so bad that it caused a once young passionate girl full of life to commit suicide is so sickening. I can't even express my words for how disgusted I am.' On behalf of Katya and her friend, whose memorial service was this morning, why was there no new funding for eating disorder treatment in the budget?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Goldstein for her question and send all of our condolences to Katya's family and to her friend's family and other friends as well. I want to pay credit to the member's advocacy around this issue from the day she arrived in this place. She works across the aisle with others who've been impacted either directly or through their community representation by this devastating condition. We know it hits people in the prime of their life when they have so much potential before them. We know it's incredibly difficult to treat and sometimes difficult to diagnose, and we know it's incredibly dangerous, as this tragedy reminds us again. It is the single medical illness with the highest mortality rate of all medical illnesses.

You also know that—and we've talked about this, member for Goldstein—there has been an increase in presentations right across the country through the COVID period, which has proved very stubborn. It hasn't yet started to subside, unlike some other health impacts of the pandemic. Historically, we all know that there has not been enough good evidence based treatment. Treatment has generally and historically been provided at the state level. We are trying to do more at a Commonwealth level, and to his very great credit, my predecessor, Greg Hunt, put in place a new Medicare program that provides up to 40 additional psychological sessions and 20 dietician sessions per year. That's been running for three years now. I think it's time to evaluate that program and the impact it's had on the community through a difficult period. More than 500,000 sessions of care under that program have already been delivered, which is a great thing, but it hasn't changed the picture nor shifted the dial sufficiently.

As you also know, there was money allocated by the former government to state governments for residential treatment centres. I've written to them. We've talked about this not moving quickly enough. I'm hopeful of announcements, including in your state, very soon so that we can actually get up and running. We've allocated $20 million for competitive community grants, which we're about to announce as well. In the budget two weeks ago, we did allocate new funding for this area. It was new funding for services that were otherwise not going to be funded beyond 30 June. The residential treatment centre that you're familiar with on the Sunshine Coast, Wandi Nerida, needed additional funding beyond 30 June. There's the Butterfly Body Bright program, which is a terrific service, and a range of others as well.

One of the areas that you and I have talked about, member for Goldstein, where there has never been enough effort in this area, is the area of research. I'm examining options to lift the research capability and the funding from government for research into this terrible area of mental illness, and I'll have more to say about that in the near future.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I want to lend the support of the opposition to the work of the minister and send my condolences to the family and to friends of this young individual, this young Australian, whose life has been cut short at a very early stage. It is one of the most confounding issues for us as a country to deal with. There are members in this parliament who have close family members who have been affected by this disorder. It's a very clear message that, as a parliament, we should send to the government, the crossbench and everybody here that this is an issue we want to do whatever we can to further address.

When we were in government, there were 64 new Medicare items for eating disorders, as the minister pointed out, and patients can access up to 40 psychological and 20 diabetic services a year. If more needs to be done, more should be done, particularly in the research area, through the Medical Research Future Fund or other areas of endeavour that we could support in a bipartisan way, we would apply ourselves to that and provide full support to the government's efforts.