Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ludwig, the Minister representing the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing. Prior to the election, the Prime Minister pronounced that mental health would be a second-term priority for the government, yet the Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry, as recently as last week described mental health now as a ‘very reactive, crisis-driven system’. He said: ‘It’s like placing ambulances at the bottom of the cliff, with no services at the top.’ Meanwhile, Professor Mendoza recently resigned in disgust as Chair of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health. Given the collapse in confidence in the government’s handling of mental health by the sector’s leading experts, how can the Australian people have confidence in the Gillard government to deliver on mental health?