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

On the third anniversary of Labor coming to power, it is timely that we talk about mental health, because it has been one of the biggest failures of this government. There were two areas—mental health and ageing—in the Labor government’s grand hospital plans that were grossly neglected and omitted. I will comment on ageing at another time, but today’s matter of public importance is mental health.

I am pleased that the Senate is considering this today, because we are on the eve of a vote in the House tomorrow on an important motion on mental health. Here in the Senate we saw my motion on the subject of mental health passed on 26 October, and I am very pleased that that motion was supported by Senator Xenophon and Senator Fielding, both of whom I thank. Sadly, both Labor and the Greens opposed that motion despite their bleating about the need to take action on mental health.

Last week in Canberra the Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry, told members and senators that the coalition’s motion on mental health should be supported. As I said, a vote on a motion on mental health is coming up tomorrow in the House and, despite Labor’s having voted against putting it to a vote last week and the Speaker’s having exercised his casting vote in favour of Labor, it is vitally important that that motion be passed tomorrow. This government must be counting the days until the game is changed so that there is an Australian of the Year who causes them less pain and puts them under less scrutiny.

I wish to pay tribute to Professor McGorry. He has been an outstanding Australian of the Year. He has brought attention to an issue that affects so many Australians and he has used his time to push this very important barrow, a barrow that can save our economy many millions of dollars in treating mental health before it grips a person into a lifelong spiral.

It is a false economy not to fund mental health properly as we will all pay through the cost of suicide and other mental health issues. Six Australians die from suicide every day. Costs related to mental health issues include the costs of policing, emergency hospital admissions, road accidents, unemployment, family dysfunction and other sad outcomes of mental health. As Professor Mendoza, the former chair of the government’s own National Advisory Council on Mental Health—who resigned so spectacularly in disgust at this government’s lack of action on mental health—said last week:

It is a moral imperative that we actually make the investment in mental health services and that there is parity in terms of access to care, to quality of care that people can expect if they have a mental health condition as we would all expect when we have a common physical health disorder.

At the moment those who have mental health problems really are getting a second- or third-rate health system. He continues that as a society—and I quote:

We would not tolerate young men having treatment rates of 13 per cent for testicular cancer ... yet that’s the rate of care for young men 16 to 24 in Australia for mental health problems.

This government has been well-informed—more informed than any other—about the state of mental health services in Australia. Since its election in 2007, major mental health reforms have been identified through inquiries and commissions. On 25 February 2008, we had the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission; in its final report it contained 12 recommendations for reforming mental health. In September 2008, we had the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs; its report, Towards recovery: mental health services in Australia, contained 26 recommendations. On 24 June this year, we had the report of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, titled Hidden toll: suicide in Australia. In November 2009, the National Advisory Council on Mental Health released a discussion paper titled A mentally healthy future for all Australians, containing seven priority areas with 22 program investments. So this government has been well informed.

What are we now seeing? Despite all this, this government is being true to form. After all the work that was done by the National Health and Hospital Reform Commission, the government had to go out and do its own further investigations. That is when we saw Dr Rudd and Nurse Roxon out in the hospitals with the white coats and the picture opportunities that could be then put on MyHealth and MyHospital websites.