Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to begin my contribution today by supporting Senator Moore’s comments in the debate and by reaffirming that the Gillard government is committed to facing the challenges of mental health in Australia. Our Prime Minister has stated that mental health is an important second-term agenda and that this government is committed to addressing the mental health needs of the Australian community.

We are in the process of implementing the single biggest reform to the health and hospital system in Australia that the country has seen since Medicare. As part of our investments in the National Health and Hospitals Network, the Labor government is investing $1.6 billion to provide 1,300 sub-acute beds around the country, which will help to provide more mental health beds.

Through our health reforms, the Gillard government is building the foundations of the health system, on which we can build better health services for Australians, including better mental health services. We are committed to providing better access to GP and primary care services, and better coordination of service delivery to ensure that people with mental illness do not fall through the gaps. These investments are effectively a down payment to address the immediate service gaps in mental health as we move towards providing greater funding and policy leadership for community mental health services over time.

Our process of enduring reform is long overdue, particularly after those opposite had carriage of Australia’s health and hospital system for the better part of a decade. This government’s reform agenda acknowledges that the challenges we face in mental health are complex and require a coordinated and careful balance of services. This government’s response to mental illness will span across the age and illness spectrum. Contrary to what those opposite assert, we are working towards an integrated and connected mental health service that will meet the present and future needs of our community.

If we define and set the scope of the challenge before us it will make this debate a little clearer. We know that mental health has a profound impact on the community, with one in six Australians experiencing mental ill health in any given year, and one in three Australians experiencing mental illness at some point in their lifetime. That is 3.8 million Australians who will experience mental ill health in any given year. Of those 3.8 million Australians, we know that around 14 per cent, or 3.1 million, are affected by mild to moderate disorders. We know that one in forty Australians will experience severe mental illness and a third of those experience it as a chronic condition throughout their life.

We are taking steps to ensure that people are able to access services and treatment according to their needs. For people who may be experiencing symptoms, we are implementing early intervention strategies to prevent those initial symptoms manifesting into more serious and longer-lasting problems. For Australians suffering common and/or mild to moderate disorders the challenge before us is to improve levels of access and treatment to ensure that those disorders do not become severe. For those affected by severe and persistent illness, sometimes for the duration of their lives, the challenge before us is to improve the quality and coordination of different programs that people rely upon. For our children and our young people, we are focusing on teaching resilience and promoting problem-solving skills. For special needs groups in our community, like our young people and Indigenous people, we are working to improve our service design. This government is committed to ensuring that our mental health services are accessible and appropriate for our needs.

This government appointed the first minister for mental health, the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon. Mark Butler, thereby giving mental health a special focus within the ministry and affirming our commitment to addressing the mental health needs of the Australian community. Minister Butler has spent considerable time meeting with experts and service providers, including Professor McGorry, to seek their views about gaps in priorities for addressing Australia’s present and ongoing mental health needs. In December the minister will start travelling around the country to talk directly to consumers and carers and to hear their stories and experiences firsthand. These consultations will inform future strategies to better integrate the support services for those with mental illness with other services, including housing, education and employment. This government is fostering a more inclusive Australia. We are committed to listening to those suffering from mental illness, and to those who are caring for our friends, families and colleagues with mental illness, to deliver the most appropriate support.

Whilst the minister is undertaking his national consultation, we are simultaneously investing in mental-health-specific programs. Funding for these programs, including Indigenous programs, over the next four years will almost triple—from $516 million in the four years to 2007-08 to $1.4 billion. We have included funding that we announced during this year’s election campaign as a part of the national tackling suicide package, which contains $274 million in funding over four years. This funding will redouble our efforts in suicide prevention, focus on the most at-risk groups and take practical action in suicide hot spots. The tackling suicide policy builds on the $176 million of funding announced in the 2010 budget to improve our mental health system and address immediate gaps.

Whilst the government is still drafting a formal response to the recommendations of the recent Senate inquiry, I am pleased that Minister Butler has welcomed the recommendations in the report The hidden toll: suicide in Australia. He said:

For example, the structural reforms being introduced under the new National Health and Hospitals Network will lay a foundation for further reform of the mental health sector.

I note, from the red, that we will be receiving that official response from the government today. I look forward to reading it. Minister Butler also affirmed that the government has already taken action on a number of fronts to tackle the problem of suicide. One such measure includes the government’s commitment to roll out an additional 30 headspace centres across Australia and flexible care packages to support people with severe mental illness. I am particularly pleased that in Hobart, in my home state of Tasmania, we are on track to receive a fully operational headspace facility by 2011. The expansion of these services affirms our commitment to early intervention and to providing additional support for our children and young people.

This government is delivering on its commitment to improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians. We have already seen this government make a $450 million new investment in mental health in the last 12 months. This is all happening, as I have mentioned, in addition to the structural reforms to the national health and hospitals network. These reforms lay the foundation for further reform of the mental health sector. They include better planning, management and coordination of local services based on local needs; more hospital and subacute beds, more doctors and nurses and a stronger primary care network; and a 21st century e-health system. Medicare Locals will work to improve local integration and referral pathways and care coordination of Commonwealth and other mental health services. The federal government is taking full funding responsibility for primary care outpatient services, supporting mental health services in community settings. All of these steps are reducing cost-shifting to our hospitals.

Those opposite still want to criticise and condemn us as we try to clean up their mistakes whilst planning and investing in our nation’s future health needs. I find it disappointing that those opposite would seek to condemn our response to mental health when the Howard government did not move on mental health for 10 years and, as Senator Moore has stated in her contribution in this debate, it was only in 2006 that the Howard government moved on the issue in any real way. Their now leader, Mr Abbott, as the Minister for Health and Ageing under the former Howard government, oversaw a $1 billion cut from public hospitals around the country—enough to provide 1,000 hospital beds—capped GP training places at 600 per— (Time expired)