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

As we commemorate World Mental Health Day this week, I would like to put on record the coalition's strong track record on mental health policy. It is this record that underpins our plans for the future of mental health services in Australia. In 2006, the coalition's Better Access to Mental Health Care initiative added $1.9 billion to mental health services over five years. The better access initiative improved mental healthcare plans, extended the ability of GPs to treat mental illness and greatly expanded patients' access to Medicare funded psychologist consultations. It also boosted funding for mental health treatment in regional areas, not well served by private psychiatrists and psychologists, and placed special emphasis on new services to prevent suicide and to treat drug and alcohol abuse.

With one in five Australians experiencing mental illness in any year, it is no surprise that the better access initiative provided 5.8 million services during 2010-11, according to the Department of Health and Ageing's report Better health, better care, better life. Since the program's inception, more than two million people have received more than 11 million mental health services through the program, but the government's evaluation, which led to the cuts announced in the budget, examined the experiences of only 3,500 people.

The coalition knows how important it is to fund mental health services and its 'Real action plan for better mental health' released for the 2010 election provided for a $1.5 billion boost to front-line mental health services. This included $440 million for 20 early psychosis prevention and intervention centres in major metropolitan and regional areas, designed to provide comprehensive and targeted care for young Australians aged between 15 and 24 years who are at high risk; $832 million to fund 800 extra mental health beds, specifically to support these early psychosis prevention and intervention centres—and this would mean up to 20 acute and 20 subacute beds could be provided on average for each centre; and $225 million towards an additional 60 headspace sites. These headspace sites, of course, were established by the Howard government in 2006 and provide information and services at one-stop shops for young people aged between 12 and 25 years.

The coalition's package was endorsed by leading health experts such as Professor Pat McGorry and Professor John Mendoza. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed motions last year endorsing this policy and calling on the government to make the investment. The Gillard government, meanwhile, said it would make mental health a second-term priority. In March, stung by criticism that it had not delivered promised mental health reforms, the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mr Butler, issued a manifesto of what is being done to 'advance vital reforms in mental health'. At the time, we were informed that he had participated in 18 forums in cities and towns, and he learned that the community 'expects us as a nation to do better by people with mental illness'. The coalition had been telling him that for quite some time.

The government had a manifesto but probably had no intention of doing anything more until it was shamed into doing something following the coalition's announcement in April of a further $430 million to supplement our election commitment. The coalition will improve existing employment services, as many people with serious illness are on the disability pension because they are unable to work more than 15 hours a week. To address this, the coalition announced it would spend an extra $180 million on improving existing employment services. Meaningful work is often a vital element in restoring and maintaining mental health. Further funds would be provided to boost outside services that job agencies could deploy for intervention on behalf of their clients.

Mental health research is grossly underfunded and we will establish a national mental health research centre to improve our understanding of the nature and the extent of mental illness in Australia, and increase our knowledge of the range and effectiveness of treatment and other interventions aimed at reducing mental illness. We will see that an investment of $20 million is made to establish a national mental health workforce training institute, whose role will include improving the quality and take-up of mental health education and training, providing practical workplace training and engaging in course development and accreditation. We will also see that a vital investment of $40 million is made to the National Mental Health Commission to provide expert advice to the minister for mental health to champion mental health issues and improve outcomes for patients. The commission will strengthen the accountability of government to deliver better mental health services.

Having had the privilege of serving as opposition shadow minister for mental health, along with being the shadow minister for ageing, I am pleased that the next coalition government will have a dedicated minister for mental health. All services for people with mental illnesses, including funding for employment and accommodation services for people with mental illness, will be brought under one umbrella. A future coalition government will encourage the states to make their contribution to mental health policy reform, as supported accommodation services for people with disabilities, including mental illness, are generally a state responsibility.

Typically, the Gillard Labor government cannot make a major announcement without mucking it up. On budget night, it announced a $2.2 billion mental health spend, but as soon as you scratched the surface the gloss faded. This was no comprehensive package but a smoke-and-mirrors trick that spends only $580 million over the first four years. This is well short of the total that Ms Gillard claimed would be spent. Remember the night she shared the Parkinson-like interview with Simon Sheikh from GetUp!? And the very night after the budget, they shared a lounge in the theatrette in this building and claimed between them that they had solved the problem of mental health. If it were not such a preposterous claim, it would have been laughable. As it was, it insulted many of the people who had been working for a long time to achieve reform. That is the style of organisations such as GetUp! that easily live up to their reputation of arriving at five minutes to midnight and disappearing as quickly once the photo opportunity has passed. Interestingly, we have not seen Simon around the parliament recently. Perhaps his usefulness to the Labor Party has expired. Labor's total spend on mental health over the forward estimates will be only about one-third of what the coalition has proposed over the same period. Most alarmingly, in 2011-12 there will be only $47.3 million in new funding on mental health from the Gillard government, with the majority of money being allocated in later years. Who can trust the Gillard government to deliver this urgent funding in later years, the biggest proportion of which will not be allocated until five years from now? Of course, anything can happen in five years. We may be struggling under the weight of Ms Gillard's toxic carbon tax.

The public and mental health practitioners soon saw through the facade of the mental health budget initiatives and bombarded their elected representatives with their tales of misgivings about the proposed cuts to the Better Access program, which was central to the May announcement. The coalition was successful on 23 June in initiating a wide-ranging Senate inquiry into the funding and administration of mental health services in Australia. Astonishingly, over 1,000 submissions were received. Having now waded through so many of those submissions and having participated in the hearing, it is little wonder to me that so many people are angry with this government and have so many misgivings about the proposed cuts that are being made to mental health.

The Gillard government has to find savings where it can and with a budget deficit of $47.7 billion it needs to find money wherever it can. This is Australia's second-biggest deficit on record. Never mind that the government is taking money from people suffering mental ill health, who are trying to recover. But that is what the cuts to the Better Access program were designed to do—find money to help the government's budget bottom line. The public are not mugs and members of the medical and allied health professions know when they are being short-changed.

The Senate Community Affairs References Committee is due to report next week and there is only a short time before these changes will be implemented. I want to assure all those people who have been affected that their concerns voiced to us with such clarity and insight carry great weight and the committee is considering the implications with an immense sense of responsibility. Another sorry chapter in the Gillard government's handling of mental health was the appointment of Monsignor Cappo to the role of chair of the National Mental Health Commission. This was an appointment made without transparency and one that caused disquiet through the sector. The role was seen as needing experience and ability and it was with some relief that Monsignor Cappo stood down from that role. (Time expired)