Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I present the final report of the Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into Commonwealth funding and administration of mental health services, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of this report.

This inquiry has received a great deal of attention and a large number of submissions—in fact, 1,500 submissions. We received a lot of form letters and other correspondence and additional information. We will be presenting some more submissions subsequent to the tabling of this report, because we have had so many. This inquiry, as the title suggests, was into the government's funding and administration of mental health services in Australia. We particularly focused on the budget measures. Although the inquiry looked at other issues, the submissions we received predominantly chose to address the terms of reference related to the budget measures.

I am tabling today a majority report. That majority report details the evidence the committee received. The community affairs committee strives, whenever it can, to reach consensus on its reports. Unfortunately, on this one it did not. Although the majority agreed on the evidence, the committee has disagreed on the recommendations around that evidence. So I am tabling the majority report plus a series of additional comments and dissenting reports around the evidence. I am also tabling, as chair, additional comments. That contains recommendations flowing from the evidence. I have considered the evidence very carefully and will go very quickly into some of the recommendations.

For those who do not know what the Better Access initiative is, it means better access to psychiatrists, psychologists and GPs through the MBS. The initiative was introduced in 2006 by the Howard government. It is a very popular initiative and has provided a lot of support and treatment to large numbers of Australians. Its initial aim was high-prevalence disorders, but it is now used by a wide range of people, particularly those experiencing and suffering from severe symptoms. Although there is a lot of dispute around whether Better Access should be treating people with such severe symptoms, the fact is that it is treating those people. ATAPS—Access to Allied Psychological Services—is also a broadly used and supported initiative in the community. There is absolutely no doubt that both these programs enjoy a wide range of support in the community.

The government's changes to Better Access, which limit a number of services, amongst other things, have caused a great deal of concern in the community. Because the government, through the changes in the budget, is seeking to limit and reduce the number of services from what is currently available, from 18 to 10, there is a great deal of concern that a number of people will miss out on access to services. I can understand the government's intent to change this to better focus the mental health programs and to increase funding. However, I must admit that I do support the concern of the community. Some of the other programs the government wants to put in place are not available yet; the changes come into effect as of today. I believe that the changes to Better Access need to be delayed until it can be demonstrated that other programs, such as ATAPS, are adequately equipped to provide services to people with a severe or persistent mental illness. I also believe that the government should consider putting in place an interim program through MBS that would allow access to an additional six services under Better Access for consumers who meet tightened criteria based on the severity of their condition. In other words, those people that need the additional services would have somewhere to go while the government's changes are being put in place. Although there are changes coming through to ATAPS—and I think that concept enjoys broad community support—the simple fact is that either the Medicare Locals or the GP divisions, depending on where Medicare Locals have been rolled out, are simply not ready to roll out the additional changes to ATAPS. So there will be a gap in services provided to people who need support with mental health services. Therefore I believe that the evidence supports delaying the rollout of these changes until the government can guarantee continuity of care.

I know other senators wish to speak, so I will finish by thanking my fellow senators for dealing with these very complex issues in a manner which allowed us to remain working together and talking, even though we did not reach consensus. I would also very strongly like to thank the secretariat. This year the community affairs committee secretariat have had a great deal of work. We have had a number of long, wide-ranging inquiries, and they pulled together this report in a limited amount of time. I thank them very much for the efforts that they have put in to ensure that we were able to report today. Thank you.